What is Schwag?
Why would the promotional products industry use the term schwag?
The Urban Dictionary has 31 definitions all being variations of:
- A term used to describe low grade marijuana.
- Any free or extra goods, usually given to employees, workers or to potential customers at trade shows.
- A rock & roll band based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Another definition in the takeourword blog suggests the Yiddish word shvakh which means “weak”.
The Schwag band in St Louis is a band preserving and perpetuating the vibe and music made popular by the Grateful Dead.
Searching Google for schwag returns 1,800,000 pages. Quickly browsing though the first 100 pages seems include other takeoffs.
Two of our more prominent competitors pay click charges for the term. Norwood, one of our suppliers has it in their “about us” page.
I wasn’t able to find the true origin or which community used the term first. Regardless, why in the world would the promotional products industry use the term??? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
