Wal-Mart Runs Ads Aimed at Public Opinion
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will run national television ads starting today praising its record as an employer and corporate citizen, taking its arguments straight to the public in an ongoing battle over its reputation with unions and other critics.
The world’s largest retailer, increasingly a lightning rod for politicians as well as labor unions and other activists, cites the legacy of late founder Sam Walton in a folksy 60-second ad. A 30-second ad focuses on Wal-Mart’s health insurance plans for its more than 1.3 million employees in America.
“It all began with a big dream in a small town, Sam Walton’s dream,” a narrator says as one ad starts with a black-and-white photo of Sam Walton and a grainy shot of Walton’s first five-and-dime store in what is now the chain’s headquarters town of Bentonville, Ark.
“Sam’s dream. Your neighborhood Wal-Mart,” the ad ends.
Both ads recite key points Wal-Mart has been making to reporters for months about its record, but the ads now take the arguments straight to the public.
The nation’s largest private employer says it creates tens of thousands of jobs a year, offers employee health plans for as little as $23 a month, saves “the average working family ” more than $2,300 a year through its low prices and is a major contributor to local charities with donations last year totaling more than $245 million.
In a news release about the ads, Wal-Mart said a survey of its employees nationwide last summer found 88% believe the company is a good corporate citizen and 81% would recommend a Wal-Mart job to a friend.
The ads will run for an as-yet undetermined period on national broadcast and cable networks as well as in a “couple of dozen” individual markets, according to a company spokesman.
Two union backed groups, Wake-UpWalMart.com and Wal-Mart Watch, claim Wal-Mart pays poverty wages, runs small businesses out of town, and pushes employees onto tax-funded public health care. Wal-Mart denies those allegations.
“Wal-Mart is living in a bizarre state of denial, where no matter how bad their public reputation is, they still believe that a tired ad campaign can fool the American public into believing it is OK to exploit millions of working families,” Mr. Kofinis said.
