The Native Advertising Argument Is Far From Over

Andrew Sullivan, Ben Smith face off in spirited debate

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Every so often the stars align and the panel gods break the monotonous cycle of dispassionate, talking point-riddled "new media" discussions. Such was the case last night during a spirited debate on native advertising between blogger Andrew Sullivan and BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith.

Much ink has already been spilled on the subject by Sullivan, panel moderator and Atlantic senior editor Derek Thompson, and others. While many focused on the heated and refreshing nature of the exchange between Smith and Sullivan, the argument seems to perfectly illustrate the bubble-thinking mentality of the media and advertising elites and should be a wake-up call to publishers that the native ad game is far from universally accepted.

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