2010 Census Swag Price Tag: $22.7 million
“The U.S. government reported spending $22.7 million on such promotional products as part of a major awareness campaign, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute.”
Read the full story here at Promo Magazine.
Tags: ads, advertising, Advertising Specialty Institute, costs, Promo Magazine, swag
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Cost: $22.7M
Potential savings: $85M
Bonus: more local jobs
Reporting all the facts: priceless
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Wheres my coffee mug and baseball cap?
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Motley – Loved your rendition of “Dr.Feelgood” \,,/
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Taxpayer waste. I pay taxes, too.
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Our LCO is winding down NRFU by next week. Our CL told us: the LCO “does not know when the next operation will start. Ask your CL to re-assign you to another crew or stand-by for future operations”. Do the LCOs have plans and organization?
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I was told to come to a meeting Monday and bring my badge, briefcase and manuals and forms and my car sign so I guess the end is really here.
It was a differnt job, interesting and I hope to work on the next section but who knows? Should I bring gifts to my CLs to aid in a return call?
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:09 pm
anonymiss, some of the CLs and CLAs may not be called in for future operations.
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Just found out my CL and his CLA were fired this evening.
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
the article mistakenly compares the “participation rate” to the response rate, which make 2010′s response appear to be better then 2000′s. This just isn’t the case.
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Back to the schwag. Where can I score some? I stopped by our LCO a month ago — I know, verboten, enumerators are never, ever, ever supposed to call or visit the LCO — and they didn’t have anything. When I worked as a clerk in a different LCO in 2000, the schwag came in all the time. The politics of who got what was vicious. Favored people got a slinky. Disfavored people got a pencil. Etc.
June 4th, 2010 at 1:41 am
I’ve got a bunch of Census hand mirrors and fans. We’re supposed to hand them out while enumerating to entice people to help us, or something. The swag is rather tacky, and I find the gifting idea rather silly. But who knows? Maybe someone DID give an interview thanks to the enticing promise of a small reflective surface, and a non mechanical cooling unit.
June 4th, 2010 at 4:57 am
Being one of the small percentage of people in this country who pays taxes, I would prefer to get my couple of cents back than a cheap piece of crap.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:02 am
Enumearate this: Your LCO must be a “favored” office because my LCO never received any sway items – Partnership got all the swag.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:50 am
T-shirts, polo shirts, hand fans, pencils, hand sanitizer, key chains (with light). None of it came from the LCO.
The local county government was given money to promote census participation. This is what they did with it. Most of it was handed out in the low responce areas.
June 4th, 2010 at 9:50 am
I would have loved to have had census stickers or pencils to give out to all of the great kids I met along the way.
June 4th, 2010 at 11:19 am
That’s not really that much, but ya, I think some stickers for kids wouldhave been a great idea
June 4th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
I would’ve liked some of the swag as a souvenir; but, then the IRS would probably be right behind them spending a dollar to make me pay thirty-cents in taxes on the value of the item.
June 4th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
I wanted a cap to give to my husband, as he collects caps. The LCO ran out of them. :/
June 6th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Why worry about the swag?? Most was cheap chinese junk anyway. In our area Partnership handled the swag giveaway. The only thing I saw worthwhile was the red enamel Census 2010 pin.