Oprah's Gifts: Winner
takes it small
25/09/04 20:21 Filed by Saswat Pattanayak in:
Editorial
What happens when Oprah Winfrey declares free Pontiac
G6 sedans as free giveaways?
comScore Networks, which tracks site traffic,
reported that visits to oprah.com jumped 800 percent
from Monday to Tuesday as over 600,000 people logged
on after seeing 'Oprah.' Plus, visits to pontiac.com
jumped 600 percent in the same period as over 140,000
people viewed the site.
What else happens? Pontiac gets huge advertisement
base since the news appears in all national media.
The return is much more than the investment of
Pontiac.
What else? Oprah is the angel once again, her
television program gets ratings, more and more
emulate her wealth (of course, what else did you
think?).
Last, but certainly not the least. The “free” sedans
are not so free after all. Lucio Guerrero in Chicago
Sun Times reports that each of the 276 recipients of
the sedans will have to cough up over thousands of
dollars in taxes. Since Pontiac paid for the local
charges, the recipients have to report the cars as
income once tax time comes.
Tags: Saswat, Capitalism, Media