A marriage made in heaven
I've been a fan of The Onion Av Club's The Hater for quite a while. For the uninitiated, The Hater, a.k.a. Amelie Gillette, scathingly and humourously blogs about those pop culture phenomena that most of us sane, normal, post-Tween people find ridiculously annoying, such as bad movie promos, The Hills, and reality series starring or inspired by Flava Flav. It's like The Soup without the bad CGI or a chihuahua.
I've not been a fan of Oprah for a lot longer, so I was pleasantly surprised by today's entry ridiculing Oprah's annoying annual list of "favourite things" that Oprah fans apparently can't live without, because they're just not trying hard enough.
Case in point, "The most unattractive outfit in the world".
You could not find less flattering lines or colours on the Home Shopping Network.
Comments
Ok - you got me. I had to go check out the whole list myself at oprah's web site.
$59.00 for 9 cupcakes?!
$55.00 for "body butter"?
$42.00 for 3 bars of soap?
$89.00 for cleaning supplies?!
And does she actually play "Scrabble" or does she just like the mahogony finish?
I red Ken Follet's "Pillars of the Earth" (and loved it) MANY MANY years ago, in my first year of university. I had those Williams Sonoma melamine bowls long before they ever appeared on Oprah's favourite thing list, and I've had the Planet Earth DVD series on my own wishlist since it first aired on TV. Should I ask for royalties or something?
Interestingly enough, NPR interviewed the LAFKO president after the show aired about the fact that their soaps were chosen for her list. I learned two things:
1) Companies proactively submit hundreds of dollars worth of unsolicited product samples to Oprah on a regular basis in the hopes of being selected for this list. I guess I knew that, but he confirmed that they had been trying for years :-). Just what the richest lady in the world needs: free samples.
2) To the Oprah company's credit, they actually do a good job it sounds like, of prepping the selected companies for the onslaught of sales that they are likely to enjoy after the list is announced. They distribute a packet that explains how they need to scale their web site, sales pipelines, etc so that stuff doesn't crash when the masses rush to purchase their products. Sad thing is - it's necessary. Because that many people really DO go out and blindly buy the stuff on Oprah's list!
Posted by: heather at November 29, 2007 03:42 PM
I do have to say I had purchased the $89 cleaning supplies a few months ago and they are really good. They are non-toxic and SUPER concentrated so they last a long time - less waste and better for the enviroment..but I would NEVER be caught dead in that oufit - even if it was given free to me by Oprah.
Posted by: Tracy at December 3, 2007 10:15 PM