Thanks for pointing out that the Gene Ontology Consortium emphasizes gene products throughout it's website (though the original 2000 Nature Genetics was not as precise). For book keeping, here's some useful information about how the GOC has thought about dealing with gene level vs gene product level information:
http://wiki.geneontology.org/index.php/Annotation_of_Alternate_Spliceforms
I understand that various programs allow one to "customize" the background reference set (e.g. blast2go). I still wonder, however, whether taking alternative splicing information into account during gene enrichment analysis results in better/worse biological insight. So if anyone is aware of a study...