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.
Of all of the people nominated for an Academy Award, 25 of them will receive a luxurious gift bag.
According to Forbes , these 25 people were nominated for acting and directing categories and received their gifts from a marketing firm called Distinctive Assets.
Considering each nominee gets about $148,000 worth of gifts this year, it’s actually kind of misleading to act like it all comes in a single bag.
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.
Distinctive Assets often finds that about one nominee per year actually turns the gifts down, and this year was no exception.
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.
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Those who keep the bag, however, can expect a treasure trove of physical items, as well as vouchers for expensive services.
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.
Other gifts included range from $495 jewelry to $60 French Absinthe, to cannabis facial oil and chocolates infused with THC.
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.
While the items in this cornucopia may be ritzy, the stars involved shouldn’t expect to see anything racy.
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.
Distinctive Assets originally began in 1999 as a private showroom for costume designers, but Fary decided on a whim to organize the swag for Grammy nominees the following year.
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.
Distinctive Assets works because thousands of potential brands are willing to pay between $4,000 and $50,000 a pop to be featured in these gift bags.
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
