Spoke to my copywriter friend the other day. He was so excited about attending an Expo being held by his local chamber. He gushed about attending a live event and see, in person, old friends and make new acquaintances. He also shared is excitement for picking up some SWAG.
SWAG stands for Stuff We All Get, and it refers to the promotional items exhibitors hand out at events. Since its free, most people who attend these events take one of everything. Most of it will likely be thrown out. Why? Let’s be honest:
How much hand sanitizer and lip balm do you need? Do you really need more than one key chain? You really can have too many pens, pads of paper, post-its, etc.
The bigger danger of SWAG is the mentality it brings out in us. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean we should take it. Similarly, just because something is on sale or great deal doesn’t mean we should buy it when a similar item is home in our closets barely used or worn.
The end result in SWAG and the SWAG mentality is that our landfills are overflowing. Donation stores like Savers are also overwhelmed with people getting rid of items they probably should never have purchased or picked up to begin with.
Of course, I shared all this with my copywriter friend. He defended himself by saying, “I get stuff for my daughter. She always needs pens, pencils, pads, etc.”
That may be so. Again, you need to ask, “how many of those items does she really need.” My copywriter friend confessed she probably did not need that many items. So, I think I’m making progress there.
Do you have a SWAG mentality? If you’re doing a spring cleaning this might be the first thing you want to throw out. If you need help in that regard, give me a call at 508-246-6120 or drop a line.
