This time in the form of audio ads.

If it were like GTA where you were driving and the radio was on, it would be cool. But just hanging around to annoy you even though you paid for the damn subscription? No thanks.

At least they're relatively limited
Then again for something that you'repaying a subscription for thats like saying "At least I'm only prison raped every SECOND thursday"
That could be a good way of doing it, they do a streaming radio thing which can showcase new music, put real radio ads in and have the ability to buy ingame versions of the items (with ingame currency rather than microtransactions) and maybe build brand preference for the advertisers

Having ads on the radio and in-game items of the products would have been a brilliant way of handling this. GTA and its imitators already have fictional equivalents of real-world products, so there wouldn't be a difference in terms of advertising volume; the fictional context of a video game could even let advertisers get away with outrageously bogus claims to keep players interested ("20% less chance of raptor attacks", anyone?)
This very same week, Hi-Rez Studios announced that Global Agenda will no longer have subscription fees. As with Guild Wars, players will only need to pay for optional expansions; the first one, "Sandstorm", will be free. They also have an unlimited free trial up to level 15, allowing potential buyers to join in at any time and get a feel for the game before committing to the one-time purchase. Oh, and to celebrate this announcement the base game is on sale at a 33% discount.
The Global Agenda announcement makes APB's box+subscription+ads scheme seem really greedy.

Just what I was thinking, you can buy adidas runners in game that look fancy but are otherwise identical to no-name shoes (so they're just like the real thing), the developers get money and the advertisers get to pretend that they're brainwashing people into buying their stuff and there's an outside chance that someone might like the look of the ingame shoes and buy real versions.
In that context, I'd actually LIKE ingame advertising. Movie posters aren't so bad but they do always look obvious since they're the ONLY poster on the street.
Anything other than a contemporary era game can't have stuff like that though, coke ads in a D&D game would be fucking stupid but in something like Mafia II it'd be okay as long as they used 1950s ads
There's very litle that can't be described by a prison rape analogy

APB still has fans?

The tried similar audio/video ads in The Matrix Online. Apparently, they didn't go down very well. Of course, I wouldn't know, as the ads used in The Matrix Online were only served to players in the US. Everyone else just had horrible over bright "ad space for rent" place holders which really detracted from the game.
I can't see these ones fairing much better.

I would be cool if actual companies did humorous GTA-like ads in the game. That could work very well for both the game and the ads. Not to mention the fact that players would probably be quite content with them.
*crickets chirping*