What’s in a USD$178,000 Oscars Gift Bag?
Whether they win or not, top nominees reliably leave the Oscars with thousands of dollars of swag. Here, a look at how the most extravagant goodie bags in Hollywood come together.
They won’t all be winners. But Sunday night, when 25 nominees attend the 96th Academy Awards, they will all go home with an offer for a sleek new wine fridge, slipper-like dad shoes, black licorice, and an offer for a luxurious stay at a hotel with views of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
These gifts and more are part of this year’s “Everyone Wins” goodie bag for top Oscars talent.
The bags are the brainchild of Distinctive Assets, a marketing agency based in Los Angeles. Its founder, Lash Fary, has been putting together gift bags for major awards ceremonies, including the Grammys and the BET Awards, since 1999.
Gift bags are reserved for the night’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, and nominees in each of the major acting and directing categories. “The bigger the award, the bigger the disappointment when you don’t win,” Fary said in an interview. “What if they didn’t walk away empty-handed? What if there was this consolation prize of sorts?”
This year’s bag is worth about USD$178,410, according to Distinctive Assets. That valuation includes a three-night stay at Chalet Zermatt Peak in Switzerland (USD$50,000), a three-night stay at a private Saint-Barth Paradise villa in St. Barts (USD$25,000), and a seven-day holistic wellness retreat at the Golden Door resort (USD$24,000).
While the overall figure may be eye-watering, the actual value of the physical gifts sent directly to the stars is closer to USD$10,000 this year, according to the company. That’s because most of the big expense items, Fary said, are actually just offers. Many brands issue invitations for services, objects, and experiences — which, unlike true gift certificates, aren’t considered taxable — and it’s up to the stars to redeem them. No one has ever come close to redeeming all of the vouchers, Fary said. Whatever offers are redeemed would be considered taxable gifts. In 2006, the Academy decided to end its own practice of handing out gift bags, citing the upfront tax burden they placed on stars.
Some of the more than 60 gifts in this year’s bag are closer to stocking-stuffer prices, such as a USD$9 case of Poppi soda and a USD$15 Rubik’s cube. There’s also USD$86 worth of boxers from Jambys and USD$80 worth of black licorice from Windy City Sweets, as well as USD$500 worth of roses, USD$495 worth of throw pillows, and a USD$250 travel duffel.
Still, stars have been putting the gifts to use. The actress Viola Davis redeemed an offer she got from a gift bag for a family vacation to Hawaii several years ago, Fary said. He added that the director Ron Howard so enjoyed his gift bag-offered stay at Winvian Farm, a luxury resort in Connecticut, that he decided to host his son’s wedding there. And when Melissa McCarthy received a voucher for custom artwork by the artist Reian Williams in her gift bag, she decided to use it to commission a painting of her and her husband, Ben Falcone, as sad clowns for his birthday.
“It’s a fantastic approach to marketing and getting the attention of some of the biggest A-listers in Hollywood,” said Justin Rezvanipour, CEO, and contractor at Maison Construction, which is offering about USD$10,000 to USD$25,000 worth of home remodelling in this year’s bag.
This year’s bag includes an offer from Dooplikit, a Hawaii-based company that uses scans of your body to 3-D print a six-inch sandstone figurine in your likeness (about USD$210), according to the owner Peterson Rosario. There’s also a USD$2,349 24-inch wine fridge from THOR Kitchen, a first-time participant in the Oscars gift bag.
For a little more razzle-dazzle, there’s also a private show from Carl Christman, a longtime Los Angeles-based mentalism who does a mix of magic, mind reading, and hypnosis acts, and comedy (USD$25,000).
“Many of the people I perform for are in the entertainment industry, quite a few celebrities,” Christman said, adding: “This just seemed like the perfect way to reach my group.”
About a year before each Oscars ceremony, Distinctive Assets starts compiling the gifts. The agency is not affiliated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Academy has no involvement with the gifts. Each brand pays a minimum USD$4,000 fee to enter the bag — the fee is higher if they want even more promotion — and Distinctive Assets then coordinates with each star individually to make sure all the gifts are sent directly to them.
Fary first came up with the idea to send nominees home with a gift bag after watching Bette Midler leave the 1994 Emmy Awards empty-handed, he said, an especially cutting loss because Midler had given a rousing performance of the song “Rose’s Turn” at the ceremony.
Celebrities also make for good brand exposure. It’s a no-brainer for brands to put their products in the hands of rich and powerful people — so Fary found little resistance when he first started putting the bags together, he said.
“My experience with wealthy, famous people is that if they can get a deal, they want a deal,” Fary said. “If they can do it for a fraction of the price or for free, then even better for them.”
The Wall Street Journal
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