Swag (bedroll)

See Swag (disambiguation) for other meanings.

In popular culture, the term swag now usually refers to promotional items or gifts that are given away by companies or organizations. It can also simply be used as a slang term for undesirable items in general. (also it can be used to describe a "waste man").

In Britain it can mean items acquired informally or actually stolen. In cartoons, burglars are traditionally depicted with their faces masked, with a hooped top and a large sack over their shoulder clearly marked "swag".

Backronyms of the word include "Some Worthless Advertising Gimmick", "Scientific Wild Ass Guess", "Stuff We All Get", "Stolen Without A Gun" (police report jargon), and "Stuff We Ain't Got". One current interepretation of the word is "So What Another Giveaway".

In Australian historical folklore, the term "swag" refers to a bundle of belongings that is rolled in a cloth and carried on a person's back.

Promotional gifts

Swag usually refers to promotional items or gifts that are given away by companies or organizations, often at trade shows, festivals, conferences, or gala events. Swag at a smaller-scale event may include t-shirts, baseball caps, tote bags, mugs, or mousepads with a company logo or slogan. A larger-scale event may offer lower-cost items such as keychains, letter openers, pens or pencils, and other small inexpensive gifts. At higher-end event such as a festival attended by regional celebrities or local dignitaries, the swag may include logo-embossed wine in custom-labeled bottles, nylon attaché cases, or embroidered golf shirts.

The swag available for celebrity actors and directors at an international film festival may include expensive perfumes, leather goods, and electronics items. Companies that provide expensive gifts for celebrity attendees often ask that the celebrities allow a photo to be taken of them with the gift item, which can be used by the company for promotional purposes. Other companies provide luxury gifts such as handbags or scarves to celebrity attendees in the hopes that the celebrities will wear these items in public, thus garnering publicity for the company's brand name and product.

The term can also refer to items given to the people working for some types of companies at the end of a project. For example, at the end of a film production, the film crew might receive no-longer-needed props or costumes used by celebrity actors as "swag" commemorating their contribution to the film project. In the golden days of the 1990s boom of successful "dot-com" startup companies, some companies gave high-tech consumer electronic gifts (e.g., palm pilot PDAs) as swag to employees when difficult, high-profile projects were completed.

SWAG as an estimating technique

Also in popular culture the term SWAG is used when trying to make a less than perfect estimate, often in technology arenas. In this regard, SWAG is meant as "Silly Wild Ass Guess" and represents someone's best attempt to make a required estimate. Alternately, "Statistical Wild Ass Guess" or "Scientific Wild Ass Guess" when used by someone with some knowledge of the subject.

As an Australian cloth bundle

In Australia and New Zealand, a swag is a rolled cloth bundle of belongings carried by a foot traveller in the bush. Before motor transport was common, foot travel over long distances was essential to workers who were travelling in the Australian bush.

An Australian writer and poet from the late 1800s, Henry Lawson, described the contents of a swag as a tent “fly” or strip of calico, an oilcloth or waterproof twill, a couple of blankets, spare clothing, and other personal items. To make or “roll up” a swag, Lawson stated that one should "...lay the fly or strip of calico on the ground,...lay your spare trousers and shirt, folded, ...(and then) Lay or arrange the pile so that it will roll evenly with the swag." Then "...Fasten the swag with three or four straps, according to judgment and the supply of straps." Lawson noted that "Some bushmen arrange their belongings so neatly and conveniently, with swag straps in a sort of harness."

Lawson stated that "... Fifteen miles a day is the average with the swag," and commented that "Travelling with the swag in Australia is variously and picturesquely described as “humping bluey,” “walking Matilda,” “humping Matilda,” “humping your drum,” “being on the wallaby,” “jabbing trotters,” and “tea and sugar burglaring,” ...“on the track,” or “carrying swag.”

Swags have been carried by sheep shearers, miners, unemployed men, and transients. A person carrying a swag is called a swagman, a term that some people would happily accept, while others might deem the term pejorative. A swag was sometimes known as a 'bluey', because blue-coloured cloth was often used to bundle the items together (the lyrics to the 1959 song I've Been Everywhere refer to a swag as a "bluey"). In the 1990s and 2000s, several Australian camping supply firms have produced fabric bedrolls along the pattern of the original swags.

Swags are still widely used in Central Australia for sleeping outdoors or camping.

Swag in Australian Slang

The word "swag" was originally used as a colloquial word for 'give' (e.g, "Hey mate, swag us a drink"). Swag has also become almost a fill-in-the-blank type word that is interchangeable for any obvious word (e.g, "What the swag are you doing!?").

External links

• The romance of the swag by Henry Lawson (full text).