Wal-Mart Adversary and New Yorker Magazine Expose 'Cynical Tactics'

Leading Wal-Mart adversary group, Wake Up Wal-Mart (WakeUpWalmart.com), sponsored by the food workers' union, supports the findings of New Yorker Magazine article, Selling Wal-Mart, as it exposes "the brutal truth behind Wal-Mart's multi-million dollar spin machine."

"It is now clear that every new Wal-Mart initiative -- every single one -- was just another publicity stunt by Wal- Mart's PR firm designed to fool the media, the American people, and our elected leaders into believing that Wal-Mart has changed for the better, when in fact it has not," says Communications Director, Chris Kofinis.

According to group, Selling Wal-Mart exposes maneuvers such as how Wal-Mart and Edelman, the company's public relations firm, have used a series of "cynical strategies" and tactics to try to address the company's wavering public image.

Cited as an example is Wal-Mart's use of what it refers to as "Astroturf" groups, which are allegedly fake groups, like "Working Families for Wal-Mart," and goes on to state they exist as a "front for the company." The New Yorker article refers to Wal-Mart and Edelman's strategy as a strategy of "co-option." Under the "co-option" philosophy, Wal-Mart essentially tries to 'co-opt' opposing sources and then use those same sources to change public perceptions, without real change to the actual business model.

Wake Up Wal-Mart notes that Wal-Mart recently announced that it would collaborate with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President ,Andy Stern, to support universal health care. Yet 53 percent of Wal-Mart employees, more than 775,000 Wal-Mart workers and their families do not have company health care coverage. These same uninsured families largely oppose political candidates who do not support universal health care.

"Included in the New Yorker article are a series of insights and shocking statements by Wal-Mart officials that help expose how Wal-Mart's PR spin machine pursues a disingenuous agenda that purposefully manipulates the national media, the public, and our elected leaders in an attempt to salvage its faltering public image," reports Koninis.

Highlights of Selling Wal-Mart, according to the Wake Up Wal-Mart press release, include:

*Edelman created Wal-Mart's 'Jobs and Opportunity Zones' as a "public- relations maneuver to soften Wal-Mart's image among minority communities; the entire budget for the program is five hundred thousand dollars over two years."

* Wal-Mart, which contributes about 75% of its political contributions to Republicans, doesn't think the Democratic Party is taking care of the poor or middle class. According to Wal-Mart Vice President Mona Williams, "Wal-Mart is taking care of the people the Democratic Party says it represents -- the poor, the middle class. The Democrats are not taking care of them. We're like Lyndon Johnson's Great Society."

* Wal-Mart pays Edelman $10 million a year to do PR but is so far unwilling to pay an ordinary worker an extra hour of work (possibly, $10.51 an hour) in order to have that worker speak positively about the company's open availability scheduling policy.

* Edelman's PR team is divided into three groups: "promote," "response," and "pressure." "In light of the Wal-Mart spy scandal, we wonder what the "pressure" group, or opposition group, is really up to?"

* Wal-Mart's Leslie Dach, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations, "I'm not doing this for the money" Dach was paid "three million dollars in stock and a hundred and sixty-eight thousand stock options, in addition to an undisclosed base salary." Dach is a former Vice Chairman of Edelman.

* All TV sets at Wal-Mart's headquarters air Fox News.

* Linda Dillman, Wal-Mart's Vice President for benefits, believes that Wal-Mart's million dollar executives face the same health care crisis as Wal-Mart's lowest paid employees.

Wake Up Wal-Mart response shows the group wants to talk about real change. "We are prepared to launch one of the most aggressive years of our campaign, we hope Wal-Mart will do the right thing and the smart thing which is to listen to this simple fact -- only by working with us and pursuing real, substantive change, will Wal-Mart be able to improve its public image and change its political woes for the better."

Wal-Mart, the second-largest company in the world in terms of revenue, generated more than 315 billion dollars, claimed profits of eleven billion, yet provides low pay and marginal benefits to its 1.8 million employees. Wake Up Wal-Mart (WakeUpWalMart.com) has over 340,000 registrations at its Web site, where you can "Adopt a Wal-Mart" and keep up on the latest grass-roots coverage.

Source:
WakeUpWalMart.com
"Selling Wal-Mart", New Yorker Magazine, April 02, 2007