Public Masturbation.

As Woody Allen said many years ago, "Don't knock masturbation. At least it's sex with someone I love."

That said, I think there's no place for public displays of what used to be called self-gratification. 

That's what the flap over Instagram's new logo seems to me. A self-indulgent display of "creativity" in a bubble for creativity's sake that has no bearing on the brand but is trumpeted with all the fanfare of a royal procession.

Of course, the un-fucking-veiling of the logo was accompanied by a video that showed the ardour and brilliance and rigor with which it was created. When did work begin to have to be accompanied by a video announcing the work for it to qualify as work? I suppose somewhere, some be-tatted wool-cap-wearing hipster is creating a video on his latest bout of flatulence (tracing it back to an artisinal bean burrito he ate consisting of farm-to-table hand-picked pintos) and posting it on YouTube where it might collect four dozen views, including two from outside his immediate circle of friends and family.

We are so pompously full of ourselves.

Creating fictions around our work to tell the world how effective and special our work is.

Imagine if you took the tens of millions that agencies spend on award submissions and aimed it at improving diversity, or some other more-noble cause.

I'm tired of it all, really. Tired of the pomp without circumstance. Tired of the self-congratulatory glow. Tired of the mania that takes away--distracts from--the purpose of our jobs and makes us look like little children at a carnival craving a balloon.

I'm just tired of it.

Tired of the trophyization of everything. When basically everything sucks.

If the work is good, IMHO, it should speak for itself.

I don't need a cheering section to help me judge something.