A three-night stay at the Zermatt Peak Chalet in Switzerland is included in the 2024 Oscars gift package.
This year's «Everybody Wins» gift bag, given to the best director and all the best actors nominated for Sunday's Academy Awards, is worth nearly $200,000 and contains 57 amazing gifts. And this is not a bag.
The list of freebies includes a kitchen grill, a jet-lag light, a smoothie blender and a 45-bottle wine cooler, as well as a luxury getaway — a nine-person, three-night stay at the Zermatt Peak Chalet in Switzerland (where a seven-night stay can cost £90,000), a week at the Golden Door California wellness retreat and three nights in a luxury villa in the Caribbean — skincare, books, food and drink (including gin and vegan chocolate made in Scotland), shoes, clothing and, for To those recipients who post a photo on their social media with PETA's «Every Animal is Someone» header, 10,000 vegan meals for rescue dogs. It's more of a gift bag than a bag that nominees find in their seats.
And people like Cillian Murphy or Emma Stone don't find it in their place. He is sent home to the production company or, in Leonardo DiCaprio's case, to his hotel room. Sending to nominees before or after the awards is critical, partly because it's so big (one year it included mountain bikes), but also because it's not really an Oscar swag bag. While one might be forgiven for thinking so, judging by the lavish press coverage and social media discussions, each year begins with Will Smith being given, say, a $30,000 butt lift or a vacation to Cancun.
In fact, the bags are assembled by a completely unrelated company, Distinctive Assets, who are essentially professional bag sellers. Distinctive Assets presents an «Everyone Wins» bag to the awards presenter, Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Director nominees, but it has nothing to do with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and the film industry. Sciences.
Contents of an unofficial Oscar swag bag worth nearly $200,000
The Academy did once offer a gift package to artists and presenters at the ceremony, but only from 2001 to 2006. The official policy was to avoid commenting on the content — although naturally both participating companies and gossip pages/sites were happy to share. In 2003, for example, the official package included a $1,500 private dinner party at any Morton's steakhouse worldwide, a pair of $499 Beamer video phones, and a four-night stay at Badrutt's Palace Hotel in Rosewood. luxury hotel in St. Moritz. , costing $1,500.
The nominees did not receive these bags. Companies like Estee Lauder have been given the right to host unofficial free spa days to help nominated actors and actresses prepare for their big night. There aren't many nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject.
However, in 2005, a basic bag including a mobile phone, free holiday, another $1,500 food voucher, plus a coffee maker, toaster and kettle cost around $150,000 (£78,500). Plans to issue a gift package for all nominees worth approximately $38,000, including a voucher for a Las Vegas weekend, have finally caught the attention of the US tax agency, the IRS, which noted that the contents of these packages are taxable under the federal tax code. as income.
Villa in St. Barths included in this year's gift package
This prompted a rapid rethink and furious negotiations, and an agreement was eventually reached to release the beneficiaries by 2005. Hosts and performers, including Chris Rock, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst and Mike Myers, received IRS Form 1099-MISC to calculate their back taxes. In 2006, the official bag came to an end—as Academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger said at the time: “It seemed a little inappropriate to have a gesture of gratitude that then entailed a [tax] liability.”
Come the hour, come Lash Fary, founder of the appropriately named Distinctive Assets—in her own words, a niche Los Angeles-based marketing company offering celebrity placements, product exposure, and branding opportunities in the entertainment industry and beyond. Fairy started out as a television costume designer and grew his private shopping service for actors into a gift bag service that has provided official gift bags for the Grammy Awards since 1999. Celebrities abhor a void of attention, and he was ready to fill it.
It's easy to make assumptions about Lash Fairy. “Everyone Wins” sounds like… Hollywood. But approach him with Hollywood questions on the phone: “How to get brands to share their products?” — there is an explosion of laughter. «They pay. I won't get up at 5 a.m. to promote this bag or ship it to Sandra Hüller in Germany for $500 if they don't. We're putting their product in the hands of 25 of the best actors and directors in the world. This is not a trade. That's my business.»
Is he willing to discuss the prices they pay? «If there are no prices, my the sales team is not doing their job. The package costs $4,000, after which brands can choose an upgrade, such as attending our media tour.»
It's important to highlight how informal this bag is. In 2016, the Academy sued for trademark infringement and damage to the Academy's reputation: that year's bag contained «disturbing» items, including marijuana vape pens, sex toys and a «vampire breast lift.» The Academy did not want to be associated with such behavior. After all, this is Hollywood.
In April 2016, the two sides reached an agreement requiring all DA bags to carry the following message: “Everyone Wins Nominee Gift Bags are in no way affiliated with the Oscars or the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.” A.M.P.A.S. does not reward, sponsor, endorse or provide these gift bags. Neither the Academy nor Distinctive Assets wants there to be any connection between the Everyone Wins gift bags and OSCARS® or the Academy.»
This year's winners are treated to vegan chocolates made in Campbeltown, Scotland. Photo: AFP
Farey sidesteps this issue by simply noting that the Oscar is not an official award. Brands are buying it, he explains, because it's one of the few almost guaranteed ways to get their products into the hands of the world's most famous people and — quite possibly — into their social media feeds.
There are no strings attached to receiving the bag, just the chance that a celebrity will use the product, travel and write a post about it, or at least take a photo with it. Viola Davis, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Fences in 2016, cashed in her voucher for Koloa Landing on Kauai, Hawaii in March 2018. She took to Instagram to share photos and tag the brand.
” Thank you @koloalanding and #holohologrill for a wonderful stay. #KoloaLandingResort #Koloa #Hawaii #AlohaKoloa #Kauai #Travel”
“Everyone wants to win the lottery,” Fairy says. “But you can't win unless you buy a ticket. These actors don't need these gifts, but that's how the market works. They are famous and visible, so the appearance of Mark Ruffalo at an Italian resort is a marketing ploy.”
Thank you @koloalanding and #holohologrill for a wonderful vacation. #KoloaLandingResort #Koloa #Hawaii #AlohaKoloa #Kauai #Travel pic.twitter.com/NJM6CUufnx
— Viola Davis (@violadavis) March 21, 2018
So far, only one nominee — Michelle Yeoh — has refused the bag. One or two chose the option “about the cake” and “about eating it.” On the red carpet in 2006, Edward Norton called gift bags «disgusting and disgraceful.» In 2017, the Grand Hotel Tremezzo told Fari that they had just received the Birdman nominee and his wife after they redeemed the trip from a 2015 gift package. Ricky Gervais criticized them in 2022.
«Hello. I hope this show helps lift the spirits of everyday people watching at home,” Gervais tweeted. “If you're unemployed, for example, take comfort in the fact that even if you had a job, your salary probably wouldn't be as big as the bag of goodies that all the actors just received.”
< p> “Pfft, Ricky Gervais,” Farey laughs. “These bags cost more than most people make in a year.” Right. After that I wrote several comments. If you have a well-paying job, you probably make less than him per episode of Afterlife. Ricky Gervais, a man of the people. Please.”
To paraphrase Steve Carell's assessment of Ryan Gosling in The Big Short (2016 Best Picture nominee), he's so candid that I actually like him. Especially when he explains why the bag has a name that I assumed was touchingly “Hollywood.” “We called it 'Everyone's a Winner' because most of the recipients on the night will be losers,” he chuckles.
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