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Swagging it Again

March 3, 2006 at 10:27 AM | by | Comments (2)

The Oscars are on Sunday and we are doing our annual look at the Academy Awards Swag bag.

This year, Best Actress nominees will receive entrance to the "Ultimate Luxury Suite at The Four Seasons Hotel" where they can pick up the Kodak dual-lens EASYSHARE V570 digital camera, personalized with their initials in 75 brilliant-cut diamonds raising the cost to around US$20,000.

Luxist reports that The Penninsula Hotel and L'Ermitage are also offering suites for stars with gifts ranging from Botox certificates to Mystic Tans and expensive accessories.

But the grand master swag is the $27,000 Mirage Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas Gift Package given to the nominees who don't walk home with a statue (we assume this applies to the "important" nominee category like Best Actor and Actress and not Best Score.)

The package offers up a stay in the Mirage's Lanai suite, with private pool, courtyard and private butler service along with an assortment of goodies such as a pair of $1,000 Black Diamond Havianas flip flops (because rhinestones just won't do), a $5,800 certificate for free LASIK eye surgery a GPS device for your car and $2,500 in laser skin care.

It never fails to stump us why all this free stuff is given to the only class of people who can actually afford it.

Related Stories:
· The diamond encrusted US$20,000 Kodak Easyshare camera [Gizmag]
· Oscar Swag bag for the non-winners [Luxist]
· Living the Oscar Suite Life [The Envelope]

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Assistants

I know in the past, most of the hotel swag (the actual stays), are going to the Assistants and Publicists who can't really afford it. No star ever shows up with the coupon and asks for a discount. Although I would definitly pay to see that.
CourtneyMay on March 3, 2006 at 10:41 AM #Permalink

Why do they Swag?

"It never fails to stump us why all this free stuff is given to the only class of people who can actually afford it."

It seems the reason is obvious.  Basic Marketing 101

It's done to generate stories in newspapers, websites, blogs, magazines, tv news stories, tv newsertainment shows.  The bigger and better and more exciting the swag is, the more exposure it will receive.

The hotels offer it to publicize themselves, and the product manufacturers do it for the exposure.

No one is going to pay much attention if they give away a box of chocolates.

mfs2k on March 3, 2006 at 12:20 PM #Permalink

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