Yes. I hate when they have a recently released book and the talk is basically just to promote it, and then often if you read the book it has no additional material.
One of the few exceptions to this annoyance I feel as well is Lessig's ongoing talk-athon regarding govt corruption.
No amount of attention-whoring is overkill for this subject, especially when considering that Lessig could easily make 10x the amount of money he is making now by going to some white shoe law firm.
This used to be a reflection of narcissism, but now it's been beat into the head of anyone who wants to do anything worthwhile: you have to be a promoter; otherwise, don't bother.
Put another way, it used to be that when I saw people saying, "Hey, look at this!" with nothing worthwhile to look at, I assumed they were narcissistic assholes. Why else would they be trying to get me to spend my time on attention that is obviously not worth it? Now I wonder if they're just normal people trying to master a necessary skill. First learn to make people pay attention, and if you're good at that, then do something worthwhile. Otherwise it doesn't matter what you do.
I don't think that's true or ever will be true, but I think there are people who believe it, people who suck at marketing themselves but put all their energy into it instead of something they're good at because they've been taught to believe that marketing savvy is a prerequisite for contributing to society.
Too many posers looking for that epic photo of them on-stage with the head mic attached.