Once around the park, James, and don’t spare the sources!

It’s all-native-all-the-time in the ad biz nowadays, with everyone – marketers and news media alike – jumping on the ads-in-sheep’s-clothing bandwagon.

Exhibit Umpteen (via MediaPost’s Online Publishing Insider):

2013 will be remembered as the year “native advertising” transitioned from a buzzword to a full-fledged category. As with any newborn, there will certainly be some wobbles and falls along the way, as the native category quickly goes from crawl to walk to run, but what’s clear is that native will grow and mature into an important part of the digital advertising ecosystem.

All of this is ultimately a net positive for consumers . . .

Yeah yeah – as long as it’s transparent and substitutes engagement for interruption and blah blah blah. The piece also promises that “confusion will subside” about the sneak adtacks and that “Brand Storytelling will be the new buzzword” – which, of course, will only increase confusion.

Which, of course, is how stealth marketers like it.

Next playah in the brand storytelling set: Venerable British newspaper The Guardian (via Adweek) . . .

Read the rest (and see Chipotle’s premiere of Farmed and Dangerous) at Sneak Adtack.