The Empire of Illusion.

We live in a world that in a frightening way has become untethered from reality. Where sound bites carry more weight than sound thinking.

In politics we decry our welfare state--the idea of poor people having a safety net. Yet we provide trillion dollar nets for banks and bankers and then sit quietly while their bonuses force us out of the real estate market.

In advertising we award work that no one's ever seen, that no one's ever been influenced by or, most heinously that never even ran. I looked at Cannes' press and outdoor winners last night. Many of them I am not intelligent enough to unravel. Or maybe I just don't care.

In agencies, we have promoted a class of gurus. Don't ask what their qualifications are, what they've done, what brands they have built. Just marvel at their lack of substance and their concomitant inarticulateness.

An ex-boss once described one of these gurus this way: A titanic attitude with a minnow in the engine room.

We judge work not based on what it will do for our clients, those paying for the work, but what it will do for the agency. Of course, both masters need to be served. But not to the exclusion of the other.

We live in a world that praises process over product.

Saying over doing.

Bluster over candor.

Action plans over action.

The weekend cannot come soon enough.