Hawaii (oh, and Matthew Fox) on Oprah

Hawaii was prominently featured on TV yesterday when Matthew Fox of "Lost" was interviewed by Oprah, the queen of marketing...uh, I mean, the world...I mean, daytime. Fox took Oprah viewers (49 million in the U.S. alone, plus those in the 117 countries her show reaches) on a tour of his favorite Oahu spots: Lanikai Juice in Kailua, Kualoa Ranch in Kaaawa Valley, and Hoku's restaurant in the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Oprah proclaimed (in her famous tone that makes advertisers drool) that Hawaii is "a different land" that everybody wants to go to, and where everyone is imbued with the aloha spirit. OK, the lattermost bit is somewhat of an overstatement, but the aloha spirit quotient is indeed high. She also likened chocolate covered mac nuts to "crack" because of their addictiveness, then she proceeded to pass out the delicacies to her ecstatic audience. I could see the heads of Mauna Loa execs exploding.

Ya can't buy marketing like this, kids. Except maybe in a roundabout way, say, in the form of tax credits to get shows like "Lost" to come film in your neck of the woods. And even then, you get a lot of bang for your buck.

>> Matthew Fox on Oprah [Oprah.com, 10/5/05]

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