According to an Information Week article, it would appear that gamers actually like the in-game adverts that they see while they play. Or rather Massive Inc, a Microsoft subsidiary that handles in-game advertising, has said as much. Gamers were surveyed and the results suggest that they will happily accept such marketing mechanisms, indeed an example is given of an Adidas advert that was placed within the Major League Baseball 2K7 game - of those players that remembered the adverts, many said they actually enhanced the gaming experience.
Grant Johnson, chief client officer and founding partner of Interpret which carried out the survey for Massive Inc, concludes that games within a real world setting are indeed enhanced by real world advertising. As well as the aforementioned Major League Baseball 2K7 game, another example of Nascar 08 is given which suggests that 72 percent of players agreed that a candy bar being advertised was a great snack to eat while playing the game.
I guess if nothing else it proves that advertising really does work and can cross over from the virtual gaming space right into the real world.