Am I missing something? Who programmed this week of Oprah shows!? Yesterday's Best Life Challenge, encouraging folks to get healthy and lose weight, was followed up today with a segment about Cold Stone Creamery (which looked like an infomercial for the product). The audience was all handed a nice big bowl of ice cream to chug down. Hopefully none of them signed their Best Life contract yesterday in order to have the Pusherman tempt them with decadence today. Someone commented recently on this site, challenging me about what I see as contradictory advice and programming on the Oprah show. Today's show, in comparison with yesterday's, is a clear example. A diet/healthy-lifestyle show, followed by a show lead off by a high-fat, high-calorie seduction. What's a gal to do? On Monday, Oprah says diet, so we diet. On Tuesday, Oprah says eat a waffle cone full of ice cream, so we eat a waffle cone full of ice cream. I'm already nervous to see what Wednesday, Thursday and Friday bring.
Oprah also hosted a fashion show of Christian Louboutin shoes, which seem to run from around 500 bucks to 1400. I'm sure there is a wider price range than this, but I just did a quick check on the Neiman Marcus website. She let us know that she's aware that not everyone can afford these shoes but that it's important that we all know "what's out there." I wonder what the benefit was for me, seeing her wave her luxurious shoes under my nose so I can envy how the other half lives. While I'm in no way saying Oprah is reptilian, I am reminded of the snake in the Garden of Eden. I'd like to take a big bite out of the Christian Louboutin shoes so I can taste how the jet-set lives.
I don't really want to review the show - basically Oprah helped several corporations make more money with free advertising. And the sick thing is, I actually want everything she showed. Everything. Her presentational style and positivity about how much better my life would be with these items makes me want to own it all. I am not much of a spender, but I can see how this year will be full of temptation.
There's something remarkably seductive about any product, activity, exercise, etc that Oprah endorses. She built herself and her empire from the ground up. She is a rags-to-riches story, which we love in this country. It reminds us that we all have such opportunity to recreate ourselves. And because she is proof of this transcendence, her endorsements are incredibly powerful. I can certainly say that I equate her choices with financial and career success.
Why wouldn't I want to walk in her footsteps?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
7 comments:
I noticed today as I was flipping through channels that Oprah is in talks, or perhaps already has, signed a deal with Discovery Networks to start her own network: The Oprah Winfrey Network.
O. isn't signing her contract until Wednesday because she has some party at which she wants to drink this week, so I guess ice cream is allowed?
Also interesting to note that she followed a confession about foot pain with a show about thousand-dollar shoes. Why wouldn't you want to walk in her footsteps? Because her feet hurt!
This should definitely go in the pie chart! ;)
Have you seen that she's getting her own TV Network? Ugh.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue_oprah-winfrey-tv-network_0115jan15,0,119907.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
in a way, oprah, in this sense, is no better than those reviled women's magazines that showcase products and techniques and body-types to which we should aspire. but our attempts are futile, these goals are unattainable and we end up just feeling worse about ourselves. i am really enjoying the insight into your project. keep up the good work.
Why wouldn't we want to walk in her footsteps? Because I bet you anything, when she was struggling as a youth, she didn't go out and buy $1,000 shoes. That's ridiculous. If you really want to walk in her footsteps, and if that's what she really wanted too, she wouldn't be showing these to you now. She wouldn't be using them as a tool to sell, sell, sell. She'd be talking about the rewards of saving your money, and maybe using those shoes as an incentive for financial responsibility - a kind of carrot at the end of a stick - not advertising them as if everyone needs them.
In my opinion, those shoes and other products like it are the very reason so many people will never become rags-to-riches stories like hers. Oprah seems to turn products like that into an overall lifestyle, telling women they need it to feel good about themselves. That somehow spending $1,000 on shoes will boost their happiness and/or confidence. But think about it in the long term - if every time you have a spare $1,000 and you choose to spend it on expensive shoes, when will you ever be able to put that $1,000 in the bank? You may be able to technically afford it, but can you afford it in the long term? If that money never makes it to the bank, you'll never make it to your own rags-to-riches story, because you'll be drowning in the debt that this grand lifestyle brought with it.
And that's exactly why I'm so disappointed in Oprah. She could have done so much and been such a good example, but instead she uses her power to push an unrealistic and damaging lifestyle upon women who are often in need of an emotional boost. And I wouldn't feel that way, I wouldn't feel I had the right to judge her in this way; but she holds herself up as the great hope of today's women, so we have the right to look at her behavior and decide if it's really the great hope she says it is. But people fall for it; they look to her for help, but she just keeps handing them things they can't afford as answers to their problems (i.e. these shoes, Oprah's favorite things, etc.) She may tell herself it's okay, since she occasionally does a show on financial responsibility. But just like the dieting, she follows it up with proverbial cold stone ice cream. It's stupid, and it sends totally the wrong message to her audience that she supposedly cares so much about. $1,000 shoes are a luxury, and no one looking for a rags-to-riches story should be adopting the lifestyle they're hoping to achieve until they've actually reached it. Until they can say their story is complete. And even then, I can tell you from experience that some of this nation's wealthiest people are smart enough to know that even in their tax brackets, they still don't go out and buy those shoes when they know there are a million and one better uses for that money. And that's how to keep that rags-to-riches story from turning into a sad tale of riches-to-rags.
Wow, that got long. Sorry about that. But yeah, this is something I feel strongly about. Hope this helps!
i saw the rerun at 11pm, it seemed like she was not only presenting the product, but the people behind the product. Yes the shoes are expensive, but they were created like a piece of art (some might think it could be related to spending money on a tattoo by a true artist). They post it note highlighter only cost a few dollars, but was created by scientist (or group of them). It appeared to me like she was trying to showcase the people behind these products, but maybe more interested in some people over others. (post-it note guy got shafted when he tried to show off the prototype pen)
And the sick thing is, I actually want everything she showed. Everything.
This is the exact reason I can't watch those Favorite Things episodes. I can't afford $100 t-shirts made of 8 million thread count cotton silk from the butts of tiny German caterpillars. But damn if I don't want one of those t-shirts!!!
I guess I'll have to settle for my $19 Anne Taylor on sale t-shirt that feels so incredibly soft and comfortable. I'd sleep in that shirt, have bed sheets made from that shirt if i had the money.
Post a Comment