As far as most of us would normally assume, award shows are an all-or-nothing proposition. In each round of nominations, they're only giving out one Oscar, which leaves everyone else who turned up with a nice nomination to put on their résumé, but that's about it.
And while that may be true for a sound editor or a cinematographer with high hopes, some of the other nominees get a lot more for their trouble than that.
According to Forbes, these 25 people were nominated for acting and directing categories and received their gifts from a marketing firm called Distinctive Assets.
They actually come in a series of suitcases and the timing doesn't really match our image of them as really expensive party favors either. They actually arrive about a week before the Oscars even take place.
Glenn Close, who received her seventh Oscar nomination for her performance in The Wife this year, decided to have her "bag" donated to a women's charity in her name.
One of these vouchers offers nominees a luxury cruise for two to either Iceland, the Amazon, or Central America.
According to Forbes, the cruise also comes with spa treatments and meals from a private chef and would normally cost depending $15,000 and $20,000 depending on the destination.
After all, California did legalize marijuana for recreational use last year.
These smaller gifts are mixed in with big-ticket items like $30,000 in non-surgical treatments from Manhattan-based plastic surgeon Dr. Konstantin Vasyukevich.
According to Distinctive Assets founder Lash Fary, this once informed the whole purpose of the gift bags. As he said, "My original intention obviously with products like that was actually that it would be a discrete way for people like Amy Adams who can't walk into The Pleasure Chest like most of us and pick up a vibrator."
However, he's stopped entertaining these kinds of brand inquiries because he doesn't like how they alter the focus of his company's press coverage.
That outing was successful enough to lead the company to produce these gift bags for every major award show, which also include the Tonys and the American Music Awards.
Each gift bag's value ballooned from $20,000 in 2002 to $232,000 in 2016, but Fary has reigned in this number in recent years. Still, you may wonder how he gets all of this stuff together in the first place.
Although some of them, like Dr. Vasyukevich mentioned above or personal trainer Alexis Seletzky, do genuinely think celebrities will be interested in their services, others are just hoping to see a star photographed with their product.
As Michael Stone from the branding agency, Beanstalk, told Forbes, "If anyone is caught using a product — just one celebrity, just one t-shirt, they’ve got their money’s worth."
h/t: Forbes
