They have a form of spoof advertising in DL now - there's a big iKorx billboard in the influence victory screen

Personally, I don't find it *that* annoying, but I've only played a couple games that had any. I could see how it could get out of hand, though.

For all the things Hellgate London did wrong, in-game ads they actually got right: if you're going to do it, make them part of the game world so they don't stand out like a sore thumb. In Hellgate, the in-game ads were in the forms of washed out posters on the subway station walls. As you ran by, you couldn't really tell much of what was on them, it blended in and looked much like you'd expect a dirty old poster to look in the "destroyed London" setting. If you stopped to look at them up close, you could see the ad.

That kind of thing I don't mind. If the ads start being forced on you, then it becomes a bit of a problem..

In game product placement ads are one thing,

They are a cheap attempt at exposing thier product to the masses more often.

They can also add more realisim to the game.

In some cases be really good for the game such as the Grand Turismo series.

But they are not (so far) intrusive or inflamitory topics or products.

In the case of the advertising method with the political ads, they (developers) are leasing space in the game for ads. The current election may be historic, but it is also going to go down in history as one of the hottest debated one. 

As pushy and as much money that can be involved, you can expect to hear "This is aproved by Barack Obama" before a multiplayer match in the near future. 

I think some advertising can be in perfectly good taste.   Like in Warcraft, I wouldn't mind some neutral creatures being polar bears, who drink Coca-Cola from time-to-time.   ...and then I bring my Orcs in, and kill them.   

And then all the sports games, I think the binary athletes should totally plug Nike, Adidas, Sprite....   Because that's what they do.