Swagland

Swagland. It's not a mythical over-the-rainbow realm, an Eastern European country, a theme park. You might call it a state of mind, a wondrous alternate universe concocted by publicists, funded by corporations eager for media coverage of their wares and frequented by journalists who have cast off concerns about conflicts of interest and embraced a new creed of conspicuous consumption.

In Swagland, the streets are paved with freebies, from promotional T-shirts, CDs and DVDs, to designer clothing, jewelry and perfume, to spa treatments, Broadway show tickets and suites in five-star hotels, to cellphones, laptops and luxury sports cars on loan. Travel writers accept free trips to exotic foreign lands. Automotive reviewers take junkets to Switzerland or the sun-dappled hills of Italy to drive the latest high-end roadsters. Entertainment hacks hobnob with stars and directors at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. High-tech audio and video reviewers max out their home-entertainment centers with LCD HDTV screens, surround-sound systems and five-digit turntables, which they keep for months at a time--for research purposes. Surfing journalists travel to remote South Pacific atolls and stay with supermodels on "floating Four Seasons" luxury cruisers where the champagne never stops flowing.

Fashionistas have long been infamous for raking in the loot--the currency of Swagland. Designers lavish magazine editors with the latest styles because they're "celebrities in their own right," explains an editor at a major fashion daily. "They're gifted quite a bit because they are friends with these designers and they have a lot of access. They may get photographed with those items, and that influences what people buy. All the top editors take free clothes."

In recent years, Los Angeles has become the R&D capital of swag culture. The now-ubiquitous promotional gift bag grew out of Hollywood's plethora of award ceremonies and premiere parties. A gift bag may contain a T-shirt or coffee mug, or it might be crammed with thousands of dollars worth of goods. Whatever it may hold, the gift bag has an uncanny power to bring out the greedy 2-year-old in some members of the media. Many have come to view it not as a perk but a birthright. "When I'm holding an event," says Susie Dobson of the Los Angeles firm Susie Dobson Global PR, "the magazine editors call and ask if there's going to be a gift bag. 'Will there be gift bags?' Yes. 'Will they be good?' Yes. 'Oh, great! I'll be there.' "