Last Updated on July 12, 2023
Everyone feels they already know Oprah. As with most people, when you look closely, there’s more to see. She was born in 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Oprah Winfrey isn’t her real name. Well, not exactly. Her real name at birth was actually Orpah Winfrey. Orpah was a biblical name, but people kept pronouncing it Oprah. Eventually, she gave in and just went by Oprah.
The Queen of All Media
People certainly know Oprah best for her talk show. At first, it was similar to a tabloid. Eventually, she popularized her style of sincere and open interviews, which some refer to as “rapport talk.” People often call her the Queen of All Media. Some also call Oprah the Empress of Empathy due to her understanding and generosity.
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It’s funny to compare this to Howard Stern, who people sometimes call the King of All Media. Especially since he’s pretty much Oprah’s opposite. Some also call Oprah the Empress of Empathy, which Stern has nothing on.
Nicknames like this come from her enduring appeal and her constant philanthropy. People can see her giving generously on the show, most publicly. On a famous episode in 2004, she gave a small gift box to every member in the audience and told them that if your box has a key, you get a car. Well, she was tricky; every box had a key. The audience went wild as Oprah pointed at audience members and happily shouted, “You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!”.
Her show is not the only way she has shown generosity. Less publicly, she gives away enough to become the first black person on the top 50 most generous Americans in 2004. She stayed on this list until 2010, and by 2012 she had given almost half a billion to educational charities.
The Oprah Effect
Her opinion itself is so powerful that people call her influence the “Oprah Effect.” This phenomenon will affect any product or market she associates with. You can see the effects when looking at simple things such as books in her Book Club. The effect is also observable in more wide-sweeping ways, such as being sued by the beef industry over some comments during the Mad Cow outbreak. It even happened when Oprah gave a boost to Obama’s campaign by endorsing him.
Oprah partnered with Weight Watchers in late 2015. She received over 6 million shares of the company right off the bat, followed up by over 3 million more. In exchange for this huge chunk of equity in the company, she graced them with the Oprah Effect. At the time, the stock had been tanking. She brought it from well below $10 to the mid $20 range, increasing over 250%! The price didn’t stay that high next year, but it never fell below $10 again. Even better, in 2017, the stock rallied strongly and jumped to over $40 a share.
Oprah showed amazing leadership and poise in promoting Weight Watchers. Her successes here and elsewhere have led to speculation that Oprah will run for president in 2020. This demonstrates the degree to which society thinks the utmost of Oprah. One can’t help but wonder if she will capitalize on this attention and truly end up running in that election. Perhaps the name Empress of Empathy will become more rooted in reality than anyone would have expected when they first used it. Perhaps if she does become president, we will hear, “You get a car! You get a car! The entire country gets a car!!”.
