Posted by chicagomedia.org on December 01, 2008 at 10:33:49:
Uh-oh. Even Oprah's thrifty in this economy
When one of the nation's richest and most influential women declares the economy such a mess that she's not comfortable this year with her tradition of giving a few hundred people lavish gifts that she probably doesn't have to pay for, well, let's just say it doesn't exactly send this consumer's confidence soaring.
Oprah Winfrey's almost-annual "favorite things" episode of her daytime talk show is usually a frenzied orgy of creature comforts and indulgences. It's always a favorite for viewers at home, and even more so for the few hundred audience members who leave the studio with quite a haul.
But this year, citing hard times, Winfrey replaced it on Wednesday's show with "How to Have the Thriftiest Holiday Ever!" Her Web site said: "It's Oprah's favorite things … but there's a twist! They cost next to nothing."
Not exactly the kind of "twist" that really deserves an exclamation point, is it?
Homemade gratitude boxes in which you can stick notes telling loved ones how much you care are lovely, meaningful, emotion-packed, pragmatic and cost very little to put together—probably perfect for this winter of our financial discontent.
But for those who as kids pored over dog-eared copies of the Sears Wish Book fantasizing about all the toys and stuff they knew they would never get, it isn't exactly the stuff of daydreams the way a $3,799 LG HDTV Refrigerator With a Weather and Info Center was last year.
"We felt that this is not the time to be introducing you to a lot of things that cost money," Winfrey said, acknowledging people are "feeling the pinch" and scaling back.
Let's give Winfrey the benefit of the doubt and not interpret that remark to mean she thinks it's inappropriate for advertisers to buy time on her show to sell travel, jewelry, electronics or anything else that might not be an absolute necessity. Besides, her fans are not so blindly loyal as to go out and buy whatever she talks about, no matter how impractical or beyond their means.
That's why Detroit automakers are asking Congress for their bailout, not her. Winfrey gave the Pontiac G6 as much publicity as any single person could with her "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!" season opener four years ago; it didn't make the G6 a best seller.
If Winfrey thinks it useful to give away holiday song downloads on her Web site for a limited time, introduce viewers to a way to store their treasured memorabilia and encourage fans to make her latest book club selection an inexpensive gift selection, OK. That doesn't preclude her from also sharing what her new favorite things are.
It's still entertaining to hear her gush about pajamas, cookie dough, a scarf, a sweater, popcorn.
And there no doubt still are would-be studio audience members—like the teachers she rewarded in 2004 or Hurricane Katrina volunteers she showered with a taste of her good life in 2005—who would appreciate a little luxury in their lives, courtesy of Oprah and marketers looking for promotional consideration.
They don't need the refrigerator with a TV. No one does. That was the point, wasn't it? Winfrey didn't think viewers were refinancing their homes to afford them, did she?
Winfrey's 2007 list, which priced out at north of $7,500, included items much cheaper than the TV fridge, such as a $5 pint of Ciao Bella Blood Orange Sorbetto. Five years earlier, when her items added up to less than $2,500, you could find $3 Pillsbury frozen biscuits, $11 key lime pie from Little Pie Co. along with the big-ticket items.
Oprah Winfrey got rich in part because of her uncanny knack for being able to sense public sentiment and play to it more effectively than anyone else.
When she thinks the economy is so rotten that it's unseemly to talk to her viewers about $3 biscuits and $5 sherbet, the least she could do is recommend a good mattress … in which we can stash our money.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)