The B&C Swag Report

Every week, the offices of B&C are deluged with swag—those little knickknacks and tchachkes promoting new series and season premieres.

While most pass through only briefly on their journey to the landfill, some items insinuate themselves into the work lives of the staffers. Coffee mugs collect coins, bobble-head dolls stand sentinel on desks, and sugar cookies decorated to look like BlackBerrys, lipstick and other pocketbook items (thank you, Starter Wife!) wreak havoc on diets.

Once, when Starz sent yellow-tinted shooting glasses, a canvas fishing hat and a cigarette filter loaded with a Dunhill to promote its Hunter S. Thompson documentary, our executive editor P.J. Bednarski took to wearing the get-up while drinking Chivas Regal and fondling a 12-gauge.

In recent weeks, a bumper crop of exceptional swag has had a profound effect on the staff. As our online multimedia editor Alex Weprin observed, it’s changed people.

The toy light sabers Cartoon Network sent out for its animated Clone Wars series have released Rob Edelstein and Mike Malone’s inner—or maybe not so inner—Star Wars geeks. The always stylish Marisa Guthrie quickly claimed the three-finger ring (or is it a set of brass knuckles?) from MGM’s VOD channel Impact. And the Prison Break Swiss Army knife from Fox is not only "so Fox," it came just in time to uncork the bottle of Bordeaux from USA Network to celebrate the 100th episode of Monk.

Take a look:

The B&C Fall Swag Report from Broadcasting & Cable on Vimeo.

By Joel Topcik