Is Oprah About to Start Selling Her Own Line of Frozen Veggies and Bubble Bath?
Filings With the U.S. Patent Office Suggest Oprah Is Trying to Become the Next Paul Newman
Is Oprah Winfrey bored of being the queen of all media? Maybe … filings on her behalf with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Organization suggest Winfrey is getting ready to launch her own line of organic food and personal care products.
"Oprah's Organics," "Oprah's Harvest" and "Oprah's Farm" are among the names Winfrey is using to launch her new products, reports Forbes.com, which also has lengthy lists of the goods The Big O will be hawking.
In a lineup that makes it seem like Winfrey is a big fan of the late Paul Newman's Newman's Own brand, her brand of organic foods will likely consist of salad dressing, sauces, beverages, frozen veggies, soups and snack dips, Forbes.com reports.
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And in the beauty product arena, her line is likely to include bar soaps, shower gels, bath oils, bubble bath, massage oils, cleansers, toners, creams, moisturizers, lip balms, eye creams, hand lotions, shampoos and conditioners, hairspray, hair gel, hair mousse and hair oil.
Winfrey's spokesperson tells the New York Post that the "trademarks were filed for Oprah's farm on Maui to enable the farm to grow and distribute produce on Maui and throughout the Hawaiian Islands," but as Forbes points out, it's unlikely that someone worth $2.7 billion would go through all the effort to register trademarks if she only planned to sling her goods in Hawaii.
A source says Winfrey doesn't necessarily plan on producing every item on the lists, but whatever she does produce will likely be a hit, at least initially.
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"It's not clear to me that Oprah's an expert in salad dressing," says Craig Garthwaite, a Northwestern University professor who has written about Oprah's extensive influence. "Newman's Own has been a consistent hit not because of Paul Newman's face on the bottle, but because people like the taste. Oprah's got to solve that problem."
Adds Supermarket News health food editor Robert Vosburgh, "With organic or otherwise, food is only as good as it tastes. It doesn’t matter the price or the method of promotion. Flavor keeps people coming back. It could be produced by the Holy Maker himself, but if it isn't good, people aren't buying."
The Holy Maker? Well, some people do think Oprah is a religion …


