The Instagram activation never died

It just went to Coachella.

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

This is my Coachella — Kate

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After reading

Taylor Lorenz

’s great takedown of a recent “family vlogger” law in Utah, this weekend’s ICYMI episode dove into why politicians can’t seem to get it right:

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I was one of the biggest victims of Instagram activations. As a Refinery29 employee, I had to attend 29Rooms almost every year of my tenure there, and even the office itself often felt like one. My Instagram archive is filled with pictures with Revlon and BarkBox backdrops, Netflix and Betches watermarks, and an ASOS-sponsored boomerang. I lived for the grid.

Almost 10 (10? 10?) years later, creating and participating in these made-for-Instagram activations is widely regarded as painfully millennial. No one would be caught dead earnestly posting a picture from the Museum of Ice Cream. How stupid we were for posing with logos and promoting brands for free! But at least now we know better, and will never fall for that agai—

If you’re taking pictures in front of a Revolve sculpture or filming yourself ordering from a branded food truck or lining up in front of an interactive experience to get the same picture as the people before and after you, then I’m sorry to say that you’ve once again stepped on the rake. Instagram activations are still Instagram activations; they’ve just been Trojan-horsed into the greatest Instagram activation of them all: the Coachella music festival. But just because Charli xcx is there doesn’t mean you’re exempt from participating in cringe culture.