From soda to vacations, here's what's in the $178,000 Oscars gift bag
Newsy
Oscar nominees are all winners when it comes to the prizes they get to take home. Here's who gets the lavish swag bag and what's inside of it.
Oscar nominees will be itching to take home a golden statue this Sunday, but even if they end up without one, none of the acclaimed actors and directors will go home empty-handed.
The prize for winning their respective categories is really just the cherry on top of a trove of other gifts each will receive for their work, no matter what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decides.
It's a courtesy of Distinctive Assets, a Los Angeles-based marketing company that's been giving the big category nominees an "Everybody Wins" gift bag for 22 years running.
The Academy stopped giving out gift bags in 2006 after the IRS insisted stars should pay taxes on the items they accepted. Now this unaffiliated replacement, which contains taxable items, has filled the void, giving nominees a lavish consolation prize full of lesser-known brands hoping to get into their eyelines.
"Just as any A-list actor doesn't 'need' millions of dollars to walk onto a film set, these gifts are given based on the invaluable stardust these nominees can bestow upon a brand," Distinctive Assets founder Lash Fary told CBS News. "Of course they can afford to buy these things; they are also in a uniquely favorable marketing position. This is a straightforward win-win transaction."
