Is embedded advertising any good?

Negative take on “native advertising” from a purely advertiser-focused viewpoint. The author’s basic argument is that native advertising is essentially by definition unlikely to generate positive brand attention, because who the sponsor is will be forgettable. Query whether the “mere exposure” effect could help here—it might depend on whether the content is only related to the sponsor or the concerns of the sponsor’s target audience, or whether the sponsor is more thoroughly embedded: product placement for journalism. In the former case, I find the argument persuasive, but less so for the (ethically more questionable) latter situation where the brand is front and center.