Oprah Winfrey’s hotly anticipated List of Favorite Things was released just one week ago on her OWN Network, and already it is having major effects on products she endorsed.
After placing the Lafco Soap Set at the beginning of her 2012 list, and the Octane Fitness Q37ci Elliptical Trainer second, both products have seen sizable increases in sales according to reps for both companies.
Apparently, sales for the $238 Lafco Soap Set, or $17 per soap, have nearly quadrupled since Oprah Winfrey’s list aired on November 18.
A rep for Lafco told TMZ, which asked if sales had increased: “Holy hell, yes it has. It is our third time being chosen. We’re busy as hell.
“We usually invoice 80-100 a day, and yesterday we had 431 invoices.”
Oprah Winfrey described the “luxuriously oversize, deliciously scented soap” as her “new go-to gift”, on Oprah.com.
“I even brought a set to Mr. and Mrs. Colbert when I interviewed Stephen for Next Chapter,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, sales for Oprah Winfrey’s favorite Octane Fitness Elliptical Trainer, normally $3,099 which you can get for $2,789 with an Oprah coupon, has increased 300%, according to the company.
She named the trainer, “a gym of one’s own”, that would “give the gift of health” this Christmas.
And the makers of Corkcicle, a wine-chilling cork which Oprah Winfrey placed 21st on her list of 60 items, said they have experienced a 350% sales increase.
Oprah said of the $25 gadget: “No need for an ice bucket when you pull the ‘corkcicle’ out of the freezer and insert it into any bottle of wine that needs to stay cool. Talk about chilling!”
And the founders of Tusk Capri Checkbook Clutch, $138, which Oprah Winfrey also endorsed 11th, say they have received ten times the normal order amount.
Since 1996, Oprah Winfrey has tasted and tested her way through hundreds of items to determine her favorite things to give every holiday – which has always proved successful for the brands she includes.
She left off Apple this year, instead touting Microsoft’s Surface tablet as one of her favorite things, saying the $499 item “feels like a Mercedes-Benz”.
After Oprah chose the We Take The Cake’s Florida key lime Bundt cake as one of her Favorite Things in 2004, owner Lori Kamel told CNN: “Oprah saved our business.
“Our sales for 2004 were around $450,000 and at the end of 2005 our sales were $840,000.”
