Hi, I live in Hollywood, California, and I get calls like this one all the time.
Hello, we're in charge of the Malibu Summer Mansion this year, and we thought your company would be a perfect fit for our event. A-list celebrities will be spending time at the mansion over the next few weekends -- Bill Maher will be there! -- and we think it would be great for your henna artists to come and do temporary tattoos on the guests. And you could give away your kits, too!
Okay, this is Los Angeles, where a dozen years ago, my company helped to jumpstart the henna tattoo trend that ended up going global. We were humming along, enjoying our popularity until, like a gift from heaven, Madonna, Sting and Prince started running around with painted hands and feet. That's when business really took off! I know the value of celebrities wearing my stuff. You're supposed to look at it as advertising. I've seen results, so I'm open; especially since I've got a new semi-permanent tattoo product to market at this time. But then comes the kicker.
You're interested? Great! That will run you $2,000.
Come again? Not only do you want me to gift my product and my artists' time, but I have to pay you to do it? I laugh cynically and hang up, feeling like I've just been slimed. And then I have a conversation with a friend whose girlfriend facilitates these dubious deals between companies and celebrities. She makes a killing at it. He says to me: Why do you think these companies keep doing it, Carine? Because it works for them.
Still, there's something stinky about all this. I suppose for a company worth billions like Nike, giving away millions of dollars in free sportswear is like me dropping off a bag full of used shoes at the Goodwill Box in my supermarket parking lot. Sort of. But small entrepreneurial outfits that can ill afford to hand over their goods for free do it too, with no guarantee that the intended recipient will actually wear or use the "gift." It's not like the celebrity signs a contract agreeing to do XYZ in return. As far as I'm concerned, for the entrepreneur, it's a dance with the devil; or a tango with Robin Hood in reverse. And weirdest of all, it is now considered a totally commonplace affair.
No matter which way I look at this thing, somehow, there is something obscene, absurd and just plain wrong about the swag (or gift) bag phenomenon. (Full disclosure: Whenever one of my books is published, part of my get-out-the buzz campaign is to give tons of books away to willing readers. Is that the same? I don't think so. I'm sure you'll let me know if you disagree.)
I had a chance to see the swag bag phenomenon in action recently when our other business, a gallery of Haitian and contemporary ethnic art, participated in a celebrity-studded event (which shall remain nameless). As a Haitian native, it has been gratifying to see the huge and ongoing outpouring of concern for Haiti and its people. The earthquake also helped spike a surge of interest in Haitian art. Since the earthquake happened, I have received a call or email every single day from all sorts of people looking to buy or include Haitian art in fundraisers and other events. So, when we were invited to install an exhibit in the backstage area of a popular and star-packed televised annual event, I suggested that the art exhibit be presented as a fundraising tool for Haiti disaster relief, which the organizers immediately embraced. And here's how that night went down.
One sponsor paid a shocking amount of dollars to keep the celebrity guests buzzed on their brand of vodka in the "green room." Another paid equally scandalous money to feed them. Surrounding the space where we installed our exhibit, multiple smaller "sponsors" paid big to give away their products to people who already own everything money can buy. I'm telling you there is nothing more gag-inducing than to watch these people waddling away with more bulging bags than they or their people can carry. Don't believe me? Check out the story on Sarah Palin and the locusts.
Organizers of the event made sure the celebrity guests and their handlers knew exactly where to find the free gifts, booze and food. Not so for the art that was "allowed in" for free. After we spent weeks preparing for this huge installation (in a thousand square foot space) of over 60 works of art, many of them large-scale, necessitating a 17' truck, five staff people and a minimum 15 hours of labor over two days, the only people who saw the art did so by mistake.
What's wrong with this picture?
I'll tell you what's wrong. It's me. Not long ago, I posted a blog on this site about being surprised when artists undervalue art; and here I am doing it too! I live in Hollywood, for God's sake. I am more than familiar with the misplaced value heaved on movie stars and on money. I should have charged for the art exhibit. If it had come with a price tag, the exhibition would have rated high on the must-be-seen list. And if the organizers had laughed me out of the room for my inability to see the value of "exposure" to the anointed ones, I would have saved myself a lot of expense and hard labor (and self-recrimination) for what amounted to a big waste of time. Life is a lesson, and after twenty years in the art business, I have finally learned a big one: Art is not free.
But I digress.
Dear Swag Bag,
I hear the IRS is coming after you.
Why don't you take a hike Swag Bag?
Or better yet, swag off.
Sure this approach works for companies in which goods are manufactured on a large scale where each item costs a couple cents to make. But giving away books, manufactured goods like shoes, makeup, perfume, etc is not the same thing as giving away a piece of art...because art *can't* be made for pennies on the dollar. And artists who do these swag bag things are giving the impression that their art is no more valuable than the paperback book or the tube of lipstick that it came with.
The good news is that Haitian art, music and culture are strong enough on their own that when people are exposed to it, they fall in love.
Disgusting.
Basic business tenet "If it's not selling, charge more" .
If someone asks you to give your art away for free, don't bother negotiating. Simply suggest they perform an impossible sex act on themselves and walk away. At least you'll leave with something.
When I tell people I'm an artist the most frequent response is, "But how do you make a living?" Sometimes they ask me that question as they are buying my art.
Stick to your guns. There are plenty of people who appreciate the real thing and to the folks who don't just smile and wish them well. You will get along fine without their business.