(Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
For the first time since 2019, the Emmy Awards nominees could take home more than a gold statuette.
This year, both presenters and nominees will be able to choose from luxury products and experiences to create a personalized swag bag, courtesy of celebrity marketing company Backstage Creations’ “Giving Suite,” which has returned after a pandemic-induced hiatus.
Stars like Sarah Paulson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Mindy Kaling, Dan Levy, Billy Porter and more are invited to peruse the suite—located backstage at the Microsoft Theatre—before, during and after the pre-show red carpet and award ceremony. They are allowed to pick one item from each of the 21 brands featured in the suite, and more than half of them are women-owned.
“We really wanted the focus to be on a lot of small businesses and minority-owned businesses—the ones that really have been hit hard,” says Backstage Creations founder Karen Wood. “It’s really just a way of us paying tribute to the American spirit and the fight of small business during this time.”
Brands—ranging from sparkling cocktails to mental wellness—pay up to $6,000 to place their product in pre-packed Emmy Awards gift bags and between $15,000 and $250,000 to reserve space in the suite, where celebrities can learn more about each additional product face-to-face and add it to their bag.
The Giving Suite will host 21 different brands offering their products for celebrities to check out.
Backstage Creations
Those exploring the suite are also asked to sign one gift bag, which will be auctioned off to raise money for the Television Academy Foundation. The Foundation oversees several programs to foster the next generation of TV talent, including a student internship program and the College Television Awards. Wood said Backstage Creations raised $140,000 in partnership with the Television Academy for the foundation in 2019.
Though Backstage Creations does not disclose the value of Giving Suite items, they are likely worth about a fraction of the $205,000 Oscars 2021 gift bag. But this lineup has fun connections to the nominees. I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel’s memoir, called MISFITS, is up for grabs, as well as a getaway to the Four Seasons in Nevis, West Indies—the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, who is fittingly the inspiration for the Directing for a Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie nominee Hamilton.
Check out all of the Emmy Awards Giving Suite offerings below:
Women’s Health Box ingredients
Agni
Agni
Agni’s Women’s Health Box holds a month of multivitamins’ worth of nutrients in foods like organic chocolate chip cookies and peppermint chasteberry tea.
Price: $75
Bocas Bali Luxury Water Villas
Bocas Balu Luxury Water Villas was built in Bali and later relocated to a private island in Bocas Del Toro, Panama.
Calm
An annual premium subscription to this app helps users fall asleep more easily and manages stress with guided meditations.
Price: $69.99/year
Empiria Fragrances
This Black-owned fragrance company celebrates the African Goddess Oshun in its first fragrance with notes of plum blossom, magnolia and vanilla.
Price: $125
The view from an Espacio suite balcony.
Espacio
Espacio The Jewel of Waikiki
This nine-floor hotel in a neighborhood on the south shore of Honolulu, Hawaii has nine suites that occupy each 2,250 square-foot floor, complete with a jacuzzi on the balcony and an ocean view.
The Four Seasons Resort in Nevis, West Indies.
Four Seasons
Four Seasons Resort Nevis, West Indies
Located in the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, this Four Seasons Resort in the Caribbean offers a new package dedicated to the founding father, which includes a rum pairing dinner and a historical botanical tour.
G-Labs UK
To “transform anxiety, stress, and fatigue from head to toe,” Discovery Day & Night Duo Body Oil deeply relaxes users with a molecular formula that repairs cell damage.
Price: $597.65
Genusee
This eyewear brand creates prescription and non-prescription sunglasses and eyeglasses in Flint, Michigan with plastic from single-use water bottles.
Price: $24+
HP Sprocket Studio
Photo lovers can print 4 by 6-inch pictures taken from their smartphones with a HP Sprocket Studio Instant Photo Printer.
Price: $149.99
Minty + ReliePH
This “clean and toxic-free” brand offers a naturally derived, fragrance-free multipurpose ointment as a plant alternative for dry and irritated skin.
Price: $29.25
Macmillan Publishers
I May Destroy You’s creator and star Michaela Coel’s publisher is showcasing her memoir, MISFITS: A Personal Manifesto.
Price: $19.99
The Go Mask
Never Go Alone
Never Go Alone
Timely for the pandemic, Never Go Alone is offering their handmade-in-Italy face mask called the Go Mask, which has an outer layer of “viroblock technology” that neutralizes bacteria and viruses.
Price: $36
Nu Skin
Nu Skin’s face massager called the ageLOC LumiSpa gently works anti-aging skin care products into the face.
Price: $396
Petrova Chocolates
This artisan chocolate maker creates hazelnut latte-, concord grape parfait-, and apple cider caramel-flavored bonbons, and rosemary caramel- and cookie and salt caramel-flavored truffles.
Price: $14+
Tequila Blanco
Propero
Próspero Tequila
Hand-crafted by Stella Anguiano, Próspero Tequila Blanco is 100% blue agave tequila produced in the lowlands of Jalisco, Mexico.
Price: $39.99
Real Fruit Body
The skincare line which champions its use of natural ingredients including unrefined sugars, nut butters and oils from fruits and vegetables is offering its Coconut Shea Mango Whipped Body Cream, made with coconut oil, shea butter, mango butter, sweet almond oil and macadamia oil.
Price: $11
Black Orchid Luxury Soy Candle
Rock N Rose Aromas
Rock n Rose Aromas
Handmade in Scotland, Rock n Rose Aromas creates luxury soy candles with premium grade waxes and oils that come in a variety of scents such as Black Orchid, Egyptian Amber, and Midnight Coconut.
Price: $16.49+/candle
SkinnyPop
SkinnyPop Kettle Corn Sweet & Salty is packaged popcorn void of artificial ingredients, gluten and preservatives, made with just sunflower oil, cane sugar and salt.
Price: $35.99/12-pack
Thera Cane
Thera Cane’s MAX Trigger Point Massager helps those with muscle pain, spasms and knots get to hard-to-reach spots to target “trigger points” with strategically placed balls on the cane.
Price: $29.95
Tiber River
Eco-friendly bath, body and home product company Tiber River sells candles, hand soap, bath bombs and salts, and more made free of phosphates, parabens and petroleum.
Price: $9+
Two Chicks Cocktails
This women-founded company creates canned sparking cocktails made with premium spirits—tequila, vodka, whiskey and gin—at 5% alcohol.
Price: $96/24-pack
