THE Emmys will be awarded Sunday night, but no matter who takes home a statuette, if you’re a celebrity, you’re a winner.
To paraphrase Elmer Fudd, it’s swag-hunting season, and for any C-lister on up that means it’s also gift-suite season. And that means lots and lots of free stuff.
Everyone from Gossip Girls to Desperate Housewives will have the chance to be “gifted” with Valentino and Jimmy Choo sunglasses ($300-$400), Rock & Republic jeans ($200-$300), Klipsch Image headphones ($350) and even drugstore finds like Dove chocolates ($2.50) and 5 Gum ($1.50).
Seriously – gum?
“We are in a celebrity-driven world,” says Tim Garcia, senior account executive at Fingerpoint Communications, a New York-based p.r. company that produces gift suites. “Everyone wants to wear what celebrities are wearing.”
And, um, chewing.
For the Emmys, LA-publicist Melanie Segal has rented an entire house in Beverly Hills. Today and tomorrow, likely guests Chace Crawford, Eva Longoria Parker and Ashley Tisdale can drop by her Celebrity Emmy House and get ready for the awards with manis, pedis and massages courtesy of Mobile Spa and hair touch-ups from T3 Micro. More to the point, they can go home with Apple iPods loaded with 20th Century Fox’s latest releases, Proportion of Blue jeans and Plantronics Bluetooth headsets.
Oh, and lest all this come off as a bit unseemly, remember, it’s for a good cause. Houseguests will be hit up for donations to fellow famous person Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right NOLA” and to autograph the celebrity sign-in board, which will be auctioned off to benefit the charity.
Because, you know, it’s all about helping people.
The SilverSpoons’ Passion for Pink Retreat in Beverly Hills also works the do-good angle and is targeted toward women in television who’ve “led the fight to promote breast-cancer awareness.” Like Tori Spelling, who just left with a new Panasonic camera, $400 worth of New Balance workout clothes and $500 in Spreegirl lingerie.
But doesn’t charity begin at home? Maybe Tori can swing by Kari Feinstein’s Style Lounge to join Emmy Rossum, Virginia Madsen and Lauren Conrad as they choose from designer sunglasses courtesy of Solstice, Michael Stars tanks or cardigans, and Nine West shoes.
The stars take the swag, ’cause, hey, wouldn’t you? And the merchandisers give it to them because it works.
Well Butler, owner and designer of Primp, which makes luxury sweats, took about 600 items with her to the suites at the Sundance Film Festival this year, to give away to the likes of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Cisco Adler. At $125 apiece, that’s $75,000 worth of product – but she made it all back when Hilton was photographed in one of her moon-and-stars hoodies. After that, Butler says, Primp sold out completely – everywhere.
“It’s a great way to get people familiar with the line. I believe in the product, and once someone wears it and has it in their wardrobe, they will want more,” she says.
And so will the rest of us. The idea is, you can get a taste of Mischa Barton’s good life by buying her Carrera sunglasses. At $150, they may not be what you’d call affordable, but they’re way cheaper than a trip to St. Barts.
“Seeing celebrities wearing the glasses gives people style validation, like they can wear it, too,” explains Eden Wexler, director of p.r. for sunglass makers Solstice Boutique and Safilo USA.
But although she says gifting suites provide some of the best ads for her clients, she also says times are changing.
“Celebrities don’t appear to be gravitating towards the lounges the way used to, but its a great way to meet the fresh faces, the ones who will go on to be the next big something.” (Still, Wexler, who worked Robert Verdi’s Luxe Lab lounge during Fashion Week, was talking from the airport, en route to LA with a haul of Carrera, YSL, Valentino and Jimmy Choo sunglasses for Emmy gifting.)
Garcia says a sweet suite space doesn’t come cheap. A good space translates into one in the middle of the room, close to where a celeb would enter, and could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 for a two-day event. Add to that the cost of 500-plus giftable items, plus shipping and traveling costs.
And not everyone who attends walks away with a boatload of booty.
Garcia says companies choose who they want as unofficial brand ambassadors. He says based on their A-, B- or C-list ranking, companies will decide whether to give away an expensive or inexpensive item.
“It’s human nature to be greedy. But if a publicist knows there won’t be any mileage or any return on the investment, they will blow them off,” he says.