Defamer Gift Reviews: CAA Gives Holiday Shaft To East Coast Assistants
Shortly after we offered a tip of the Santa hat to last season's agency Grinch for improving upon the cheap, Santee-Alley-quality electronics it handed out in 2005 by upgrading to Apple gift cards, we received this report of the comparative lump of coal dropped in the stockings of CAA's wrong-coasted staffers:
LA may have received apple gift cards but CAA NY basically got a reminder that the office is still the red-headed stepchild. Instead, the Coby Vzon portable dvd player, model number tf-dvd5005 was given. It's as top of the line as it sounds. Coby doesn't even have any information about this paper weight on its website. Worst of all, they stamped CAA on them so they can't even be re-gifted. They were probably found in a closet during the move.
[from a follow-up e-mail:] and as an update, some of the players don't work.
Amazon's selling the DVD players for $69.99 (buy one now and simulate the agency assistant holiday experience at home!), but we imagine that CAA was able to apply its legendary bargaining powers to haggle its Chinatown stall vendor far below that price point, a hardball negotiation that probably featured at least one barely veiled threat of a call to the police or INS. Whatever the cost, it's clear the company values its L.A.-based employees more, who will be able to convert their $100 cards into CAA-logo-free iPod Shuffles they can immediately re-gift to family members back home without shame.
