Posted on 09/13/2004 10:47:00 AM PDT by Feiny
Chat show queen Oprah Winfrey celebrated the opening of her 19th season on US TV today by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.
We’re calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off,” Winfrey said.
Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 audience members onto the stage. She gave each of them a car – a Pontiac G6.
She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a twelfth car. But when the audience members opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.
“Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!” Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage.
The audience members screamed, cried and hugged each other – then followed Winfrey out to the car parking of her Harpo Studios in Chicago to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows.
The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac.
“A little idea grew into a big idea,” said Mary Henige of Pontiac
Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written to the show about their need for a new car. One woman’s young son said she drove a car that “looks like she got into a gunfight” another couple had almost 400,000 miles on their two vehicles.
In other segments on the show, Winfrey surprised a 20-year-old girl who had spent years in foster care and homeless shelters with a four-year college scholarship, a makeover and £6,000 in clothes. And a family with eight foster children who were going to be kicked out of their house were given £72,000 to buy and repair the home.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is syndicated to 212 domestic markets and 109 countries.
I'd say Pontiac is the one being generous..
Are her ratings down or something? It seems she has to lure people into her audience to give away stuff.
What we do need is an elimination of the ridiculous "gift tax" that people have to pay when given a generous gift like this. That and pretty much all other taxes...
Oprah did.
Does this make you more or less generous than she?
oh it's a win-win situation all right for Oprah and CM - no doubt.
And it's a very kind gesture. players on game shows often go thrugh major humiliation, and even then don't wind up with the car.
I just hope that this gift isn't a millstone around the neck of the recipients with all the hidden costs associated with not only a 15 thousand dollar gift - but the financial logistics involved in operating a new car.
In many cases it isn't the money it's the timeing. this gesture throws family financial planning into chaos until the folks can get back on track.
that said - it's a nice gesture on all parts, and I hope none of the recipients get burned because of it.
Brilliant marketing, yes, but the cars still suck. That's why all three cars I own are Made in America Toyota Camrys.
Giving to the Needy 1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
-Matthew 6
Gift taxes are paid by those who give not those that receive.
Thanks for that....
maybe you are correct, but people with bad credit might have trouble obtaining a loan.
I make good money, and support five motor velicles ov varying vintages (newest - 2003), and if you gave me a new 15K car I'd have to pass because the 4-5 thousand dollar immediate hit would be too much money to come up with in too short a time. I can't fathom how someone wioth little money to begin with could do it.
I'm jealous, LOL!
That is exactly what I am trying to say about Oprah. O
"What we do need is an elimination of the ridiculous "gift tax" that people have to pay when given a generous gift like this. That and pretty much all other taxes..."
Hey, I don't like taxes either, but I see no need to push for repeal of a nonexistent tax. Recipients of gifts don't have to pay any tax on the gift.
Then again, if I'm against a tax that doesn't exist, I must be a big-government RINO.
The church I used to go to last year has a yearly trip to Appalachia to help people who's lives have been washed away by floods. They have no business market and their financial options are limited. The only real choice they have nowadays is to just move to another region if they can afford it.
Not to say your experience didnt exist but the people my church has seen are hardly living large.
So when one of those drivers kills someone while driving the donated car, will they sue Oprah for giving them that deadly machine?
Except now it's broadcast from the New Jersey Governor's office.
Yep. On the ABC radio news during Rush, they mentioned this story and added that Pontiac would pay to customize the cars and pay the taxes on them as well. Generous, yes; good marketing, you betcha!
I hate to sound like an insenstitive corporate stooge, but my LLM in tax says none of this was done without a look at how this move was going to positively affect Pontiac's bottom line. Y'all didn't think they were giving cars away just to be nice, did you?
Ah..now that makes a big difference. Good for Poniac. They could have skipped that part and still received accolades. So good for them. It's still a brilliant marketing idea, but it has more of a touch of real generousity since they are paying the taxes and everything. All the people will be out is insurance and probably property taxes (at least future property taxes). Insuring junkers for liability is more expensive than many people realize, so we are talking only about a differnce in what they are currently paying.
Some of her shows have become nothing but a hour long infommercial. Granted the audience gets a lot of free stuff. But who is really giving the stuff away.
And it is done with your own money.
Amen to your quote.
I never keep records of my gifts to others. someone else is doing a far better job than I in that regard.
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