April 2006 | Features
Eco Swag for Oscar Night
by Gar Smith
When it comes to hawking products, there are two events that sit at the summit of Advertiser’s Mount Olympus—the Superbowl and the Academy Awards. But unlike the Superbowl, Oscars night offers more than high-priced commercial slots for big-ticket advertisers; the Oscars also offers VIP Swag Bags.
In recent years, these celebrity goodie-bags have become more than just the Academy’s way of saying “thanks"—they are now a thriving side-industry. Companies donate goods in hopes that sales will spike when a star is photographed using one of their products. As a result, the value of donated goods tucked into the Swag Bags handed out at this year’s 78th Academy Awards reportedly topped $100,000 per bag.
Freebies included Motorola PEBL cellphones, Vonage Vtech Broadband phone systems, Apple iPods (with video), BlackBerries, Canon PowerShot digital cameras, Compact photo printers and Firefly cellphones for the kids.
But, lest this freewheeling display of conspicuous hyper-consumption leaves you feeling woozy, take heart. For the fourth year in a row, self-indulgence was tempered with sustainability, thanks to the appearance of Green Swag Bags.
Boxes of ecoSWAGG (Sustainability, Wellness and Green Gifts) are part of Global Green USA’s “Red Carpet, Green Cars” campaign. While every Hollywood luminary gets an official Swag Bag just for showing up, the ecoSWAGG bags go only to conscientious celebs who pull up in high-mileage hybrids and nonpolluting electric vehicles—folks like Leonardo DeCaprio, Salma Hayek, Edward Norton, Cameron Diaz, Ed Begley, Jr., Charlize Theron, Kirsten Dunst and Angelina Jolie.
This year, each EcoSWAGG bag (or post-consumer recycled box) contained nearly $5,000 worth of Green goodies. Included in what the Green A-list took home at the end of the day: Ecco Bella chocolates, lipstick and lotion; Biota Spring Water in biodegradable bottles; Arbor Snowboard and Edun organic cotton T-shirts; Frog’s Leap organic cabernet wine; Solar Style cellphone chargers; Loomstate organic denim; Toyota solar iPod chargers; Universal Communications solar chargers; 100% wind-powered Fat Tire Ale from New Belgium brewers; Napapijri Geographic fleece outerwear; a copy of Cities in the Wilderness from Island Press; a copy of the eco-fashion magazine, Shift; and gift tickets to The Villages, an eco-resort in Loreto Bay, Mexico.
Global Green USA is the local affiliate of Green Cross International, the global environmental action organization founded by former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev. For more information on Global Green’s campaigns (including its “Pledge of American Energy Independence"), visit globalgreen.org.
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