You know how it pains me to say (write) something like this but… over 20 years ago, when I first joined Hilton Apparel as a territory rep, it was drilled into my head by our then vice-president that, despite what the industry trend might be, we were not in the "wearables" business. That cheapened what we did, he said. We were in the "apparel" business.
Back then, and even now, I saw the point he was trying to make. The term "wearables" did cheapen what we sold. We were a higher-end line, featuring some retail worthy products. We were an apparel company (see… it’s right there in the name) selling to the promotional industry and, by golly, we were going to convince the rest of the industry to use that term.
In fact, we were so trendsetting, we changed the name from Hilton Apparel to Hilton Corporate Casuals, getting front and center on how the industry was evolving. Of course, it got harder to pull that off when our focus turned primarily to bowling shirts and racing apparel, but I digress.
All of this comes to mind as, at press time, we are in celebrity awards season. As such, there was a report today about the "swag bag" given out at the most recent ceremony. I truly hate that term: swag.
You have to go scroll quite a way down the page on www.urbandictionary.com to find anything even remotely tying that word to our industry. To me, it has always implied cheap giveaway stuff. It's only within the last 10 years or so that I came to hear that "swag" was supposedly an acronym for (sanitized for your protection) Stuff We All Get. I did like "Souvenirs, Wearables And Gifts," which I'd never heard before. I'd always associated "swag" with "booty," as in a pirate's haul.
Which doesn't mean I like it any better.
It still cheapens who we are and what we do… not unlike the imagery of trick-or-treaters loading their bags at Halloween, or distributors at certain trade shows loading their carts with samples that they’ll never sell or even present.
Today I saw a Facebook post (from a supplier, no less!) raving, in CAPITAL LETTERS, how he LOVES SWAG. My flesh crawled. Please, have some pride and professionalism!
Paul Bellantone, president of PPAI, agrees with me.
Back in December, he made reference to an Associated Press article calling out the most over-used words and phrases. Right there, along with "hack," "foodie," and "polar vortex," was "swag." Along with swag, his wish is to ban "trinket" and "tchotchke." As is often the case, he’s got my support!
Now if we could only get people to stop saying we're in the "ASI business"!
Mike Schenker, MAS, is a promotional industry veteran and member of the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York (SAAGNY) Hall of Fame. He can be reached at mike@mikeschenker.com.