Mysteries

A Swag Blast from my TV Past

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the mystery community who knows me that the minute I heard about authors making trading cards – authors Raquel V. Reyes, Daphne Silver, and Nicole Asselin to be specific – I was all in the idea. I made and ordered my own cards in about twenty minutes. Thus, I’ll soon add them to a supply of promo giveaways so endless that it’s earned me the nickname of The Swag Queen. (“Swag” in this case meaning “stuff we all get,” not stylish swagger, of which I have none.)

My heavy lean into swag didn’t start with my career switch from TV writer to mystery author. Dad was a Mad Man, so I was housed and fed on advertising campaigns. But show business is the lodestar of swag. Whether you’re working on a film or TV show, at some point you’ll go home with a gift commemorating the project, usually but not always featuring its logo.

When I worked on Wings, the showrunners also created Frasier, so we’d get these neat buttons at the combined holiday party…

I’ve seen some of these on eBay, leading me to wonder which cast or crew member decided to trade memories for moolah.

Speaking of memories, here are two picture frames that were show gifts. Can you guess which one is from Wings? (The other is a season-ender photo from Just Shoot Me.)

On the rare occasion I go to the beach, I always take this handy bag from Still Standing, which came with a beach towel I can’t find…

Lap blankets are also a popular gift. In the fourteen or so years that my husband has been working at Warner Brothers, the studio has gone through three owners and three names – and we have swag for all of them, as you can see from this artifact commemorating its brief tenure as “Warner Media.” The brown blanket is a particular favorite of mine. Sometimes the studio and/or network will give special gifts to high-level writers. I was lucky enough to score this luxe blanket from CBS. It inspired a plot point in my short story, “Billy Wilder’s Ghost,” (from HOLLYWOOD KILLS: A CRIME ANTHOLOGY) where executives think they’re doing my protagonist a favor by gifting her, a lowly story editor, with a blanket usually reserved for only co-Executive Producers and showrunners. (Spoiler alert: they are not.)

Some clothing items are a hit. I’ve worn this plain but incredibly useful fleece jacket so much it has a hole in it…

Other gifts totally miss the mark. The Wings writers received luxurious bathrobes featuring the Wings logo one year as a holiday gift. Unfortunately, with only three women out of a dozen writers on the staff, no thought was given to size. But it didn’t matter. When the entire twelve of us tried on our robes, we looked less like scribes and more like a coven…

I didn’t keep every swag gift I received. Somewhere in America, there’s someone wearing an item I donated, due to either a housekeeping or bad memories purge. What I’ve kept means something to me, even this crazy, ill-fitting, coven-y bathrobe, which I had to shake the dust off of because I gave it to my husband and he never wears it either. So, if you see a Wings or Frasier pin for sale on eBay, it won’t be mine.

I hope my readers feel the same way about the swag that I give them.

Readers, do you have a particularly memorable item of swag? What’s your favorite author swag?

37 thoughts on “A Swag Blast from my TV Past”

  1. My favorite swag is my little teddy bear from you when you were first promoting your new series. Other favorite swags are the jar opener thing, the glasses wipes, oh and my green alligator. And of course the many pens I’ve collected.

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    1. Dru, I love that you found this post! AND I love even more that you love your teddy bear. And alligator.

      And yes to jar openers and eyeglass wipes. I still have yours from when you were Fan GoH at Left Coast!!

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  2. Pingback: A link to “Swag from my TV Past” – Chicks on the Case

  3. I’ve shared lots of swag I’ve received over the years, both from companies where I worked and from authors, but I will never share my collection of Golden Motel bears! They help guard my bookshelves!

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      1. Nope, not going to Calgary. The cost was prohibitive, adding in two flights to get there (and two to get back) plus one night hotel in Toronto, hotels in Calgary, meals etc. I was looking at $4,000. Just could not justify it.

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  7. I’m guessing, of those two pictures, the frame with all the plains on it, is from Just Shoot Me. (You’re a mystery authors. I’m predicting a twist.)

    Seriously, it’s always fun to see/hear what people get as show swag. Thanks for sharing.

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  8. I’m not sure what my favorite swag is, but I think the jar openers are really practical. I used to bring home swag for the kiddos, but it was hit-n-miss, so nowadays I only grab something if it really sparks my interest (and if there are a lot of them because I want to leave enough for readers!).

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  9. When I was at the peak of my advertising career and was getting to fly to LA to do shoots, every production company would gift us swag — and it was usually awesome! I still have a really nice teddy bear, although it was kind of random and I don’t even remember what shoot it was from. My husband has a great sweatshirt from Red Dog Films, and we have an assortment of lap blankets, gym bags, and other items. The one thing that didn’t make the cut was the T-shirts, which were all donated to thrift stores long ago!

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  10. I think your swag is FANTASTIC! (Also, HUGE Wings fan here)

    Last year Connie Berry gave out those little glass cleaner cloths, which I use ALL THE TIME. Genius swag. And tiny nail files, I’ve gotten those from Jane Porter at Tule Publishing.

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  11. I too love the glasses cleaner cloths, because I actually use them. And my favorite swag to give out has been potholder and drink coasters, which always go fast from the swag table (but the potholders are rather expensive, alas).

    And yes, you definitely are the Queen of Swag, dear Ellen!

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  12. Ellen,

    I love glass wipers. I am always losing them, so you know they get some good use. I might have to talk to you about that for my next book.

    I try to come up with unique stuff to give out as ideas. Anyone needs an idea? My fee is a Grande Mocha Frappuccino, whipped cream optional.

    And I am sneaking in on the trading card bandwagon with you. I hope. They are supposed to be ready for pickup tomorrow. After all, there has to be a rookie card. Me!

    See you this weekend. And good luck to any chick up for an award!

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  13. El, those robes are priceless. (Well, your expression is, lol.) Once back in the day my spouse who worked in advertising received a 90s-era upfronts gift of a small, all-gold (not real, just the color) TV and video cassette player. Inside was a video of the channel’s upcoming season shows. Do I remember which channel? Possibly Discovery. Maybe MTV. But that TV/player worked great and we had it for years. Also, I am the proud owner of a 1980s-era CBS cameraperson’s jacket and also one of those windbreaker suits and pants the weatherpersons used. (I briefly worked for CBS as the parent company of Praeger Publishers).

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  14. I commented on the other post, then realized what I had done. I love swag of any kind. I use Ellen’s glasses wipe every day. I also use a jar gripper often, and have so many bookmarks I will never need to buy another. I think trading cards are a brilliant idea and hope to collect them.

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