I can’t get the word out of my head. I sounds rather ugly, sticky and well, slow. But there are interesting stories, thoughts and possibilities connected with it.

This article on techcrunch.com is how I came accross the topic. Google-ing a bit, I found this:

SCHWAG. IT SOUNDS YIDDISH. THE word actually traces back to 14th century Norwegian, but schwag’s potential for beauty, lyricism and the power to move people is as forgotten as the Yiddish language’s potential for the very same.

Source: MediaPost

In the History of Schwag I like especially the Wrigley’s story.

1880s William Wrigley Jr. hands out gum to promote his Wrigley’s Scouring Soap. The public responds: Screw the soap; just give us the gum.

Actually ValleySchwag is an interesting idea. When I was in Athens recently I also picked up something for free. Some kind of a magazine in a restaurant, on the way to the lavatory, between the stairway and the cigarette automat. I can’t read greek, but there are some nice pictures in it. It is an every day item. Something connected to the life of people that live in Athens. If items like this magazine were packaged and sold by a startup like ValleySchwag I would be likely to buy one, let’s say from Tokyo, or Moskow maybe, or some other distant place. Seeing a picture is fine, but browsing through a magazin is different - more tactile. Actually I was wondering if these kind of flyers, hand out, magazins could be used in foreign language classes. You know those “read a newspaper article” exercises, where you have to look up every second word. But just a short leaflet maybe with some nice graphics on it - I wonder what the work of an archeologist must be like, discovering an ancient civilisation, with a language unknow to us now, studying the writings on a wall of a tomb or temple or statue.