Academy Sues Over $200k Oscar Gift Bags

And the Academy are getting pretty sick of being associated with the often-tawdry contents of the bags, which this year include sex toys and a breast lift voucher.

However, Reuters reports that the organization that hands out the awards wants to announce that it hasn’t approved any of those items.

The Oscars swag bag that made rounds last week, and which included items like a “vampire breast lift” and a $250 vaporizer, isn’t officially sanctioned by the Academy, which is now suing the marketing company responsible for promoting the gift bags. “Nominee Gift Bags”, and “Everyone Wins Nominee Gift Bags in Honor of the Oscars®”.

According to the lawsuit (PDF) filed in U.S. District Court, defendant Lash Fary, owner of Distinctive Assets, the marketing firm behind the gift bags, is confusing customers by suggesting the Academy endorses the bags with slogans such as “Everyone Wins At The Oscars®!”

Spencer Platt/Getty Images The swag stuffed gift bag even comes with a first-class trip to Israel. The Hollywood Reporter alleges they had warned them against using their trademark past year, when similar confusion about Academy affiliation arose in the media. A Forbes.com article about “absurd swag”, the lawsuit says, “unequivocally associates” the Academy with said swag.

“But Distinctive Assets’ new tagline is hardly the only means it is now using to advance the false idea that it is connected to the Academy and the Oscars”, adds the lawsuit.

Nominees will also receive Haze Dual V3 Vaporizers ($250 each), personalized M&Ms ($300), a Steamist spa package ($5,060), more than $5,000 worth of treatments from 740 Park Plastic Surgery, and a lifetime supply of Lizora Pu-erh Tea Nourishing Cream and Pu-erh Tea Cleansing Bar, a value of $31,200.

George Clooney famously auctioned his Oscars gift bag in 2006 to raise funds for charity. “Distinctive Assets has been falsely representing that its extravagant “gift bags” are distributed by the Academy, at its direction, or with its endorsement or approval”, an Academy spokesperson said. It does not hire Distinctive Assets, consult with it, or help it distribute gift bags. The suit requests an injunction against the gift bag company as well as trebled profits and damages due to the ongoing issues the Oscars have had.