Through the Wire

By Linda Haugsted 12/6/2004
Contributor: Ted Hearn.

NAMIC: Diversity Is In the Bag
At all the biggest entertainment-industry gatherings, the buzz is about the swag. For instance, VH1 attracted some of the star participants for the taping of its recent VH1 Big In ’04 pop-culture special with the promise of a reward goodie bag worth $6,000 and containing everything from Cartier sunglasses to a Donald Trump board game.

So it should be no surprise that when NAMIC New York staged its holiday gala in Manhattan last week, the planning committee decided to join the trend and give its supporters something more than traditional cable premiums.

NAMIC is all about cultural diversity, so the committee wanted this year’s event to reflect the organization’s mission, according to MTV: Music Television’s Angela Jackson, one of the gala’s chairs.The gift bags held products representing different cultures from around the world: boxed note
cards with “Day of the Dead” images from Latino artist Ladi Loera; Universal Music Group world-music CDs; sugar body scrubs from Soul Scents, hand-woven bookmarks by Africa artists from eShopAfrica; Brazilian coffee; travel candles in a café con leche scent; Chinese liquid green tea; an Indian bag containing lip balms; chocolate-covered fortune cookies; natural spa products; and a child’s T-shirt inside a takeout food container — all inside a weekender tote.

This year’s gala honored departing National Cable & Telecommunications Association chief Robert Sachs.