Now that Oprah is back from her Spring Break and has new shows on again, it got me to thinking: Why hasn’t Oprah ever done an entire show on scrapbooking? Unless I’ve missed something during all these years as a loyal Oprah viewer, the only scrap-related thing ever was when Lisa Bearnson was on for a hot minute during a show about women entrepreneurs (I never saw this episode, I just heard about it – anyone got the low down?). So, I just don’t get it. The Oprah show’s main demographic is probably identical to the main scrapbooking demographic: women age 30 to 50, married with kids. Oprah is known for having shows about the latest, greatest, most popular thing – the “what is everyone doing or talking about?” kind of topics. Well, American women are scrapbooking, girlfriend!!! I have e-mailed Oprah myself with this fabulous show idea – TWICE – and nada, nothing. It’s just so bizarre. What is her resistance to scrapbooking? Is Ms. Winfrey afraid she will get a paper cut when she helps with the demo? Does she have something against people from Utah? Is she waiting until scrapbooking becomes “big”? Well, now is the time! The last scrappin’ statistics I heard went something like this: Every third household has a scrapbooker, and it is now a $3 billion industry. Scrapbooking far surpasses any other craft hobby in popularity and sales. I just wish Oprah would do a scrapbooking show and give this fabulous hobby/art it’s proper due – don’t you???
Edit: Here is a correction/addition to my scrap stats above. It’s quoted from Craftrends News Headlines: “The 2006 Craft & Hobby Association Attitude & Usage Study, released at the January trade show, reveals that the U.S. craft and hobby industry achieved $30.2 billion in annual retail sales, with 57 percent of U.S. households (62 million) participating in crafts last year. Annual average spending per household is $476.”