Oprah’s Gifts: Winner takes it small

What happens when Oprah Winfrey declares free Pontiac G6 sedans as free giveaways?comScore Networks, which tracks site traffic, reported that visits to oprah.com jumped 800 percent from Monday to Tuesday as over 600,000 people logged on after seeing 'Oprah.' Plus, visits to pontiac.com jumped 600 percent in the same period as over 140,000 people viewed the site.What else happens? Pontiac gets huge advertisement base since the news appears in all national media. The return is much more than the investment of Pontiac.What else? Oprah is the angel once again, her television program gets ratings, more and more emulate her wealth (of course, what else did you think?).Last, but certainly not the least. The “free” sedans are not so free after all. Lucio Guerrero in Chicago Sun Times reports that each of the 276 recipients of the sedans will have to cough up over thousands of dollars in taxes. Since Pontiac paid for the local charges, the recipients have to report the cars as income once tax time comes.