Japanese milk bread
COURTESY OF GINZA NISHIKAWA
An $18 loaf of Japanese shokupan, or milk bread, from Los Angeles-based bakery, Ginza Nishikawa, is for the food-loving gift bag winners.
Why bother with the gift bags?
Let’s be real—each of the recipients of the gift bag could probably afford each of those items on their own, too. So why the jazzy, six-figure hamper?
Distinctive Assets founder and “Gift Guru” Lash Fary thinks the gifts are less about the monetary value and more about a symbiotic relationship between movie stars and brands that want exposure.
“While this gift bag does, as always, have an impressive value, that is neither our focus nor goal. This is a straightforward win/win,” Fary said in a statement. “These nominees are in a unique position to help participating brands immeasurably by simply wearing, using and talking about these products.”
Brands need to pay Distinctive Assets $4,000 to be included in the hamper and there are no promises that the recipients will promote them. In one instance of how a brand gets exposure, Viola Davis used the voucher in her “Everyone Wins” bag from the 2018 Oscars to visit Koloa Landing Resort in Kauai.
Some of the gifts aren’t just material items either. Nominees get a plot of land in Australia that is intended to contribute to reforestation efforts. And the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) neck pillow supports the effort to curb monkey imports for lab testing.
As for their part, nominees often call to make sure that they get their gift bag, even if they don’t walk away with the golden statue.
“We get calls from about 25% to 30% of the nominees each year who want to make sure we know where to get their bag to them,” he told CNBC last March.
