Wal-Mart's Good Deeds

by Sheldon Rampton — September 18, 2005 - 10:58pm

Wal-Mart Stores "is enjoying its best publicity in years as even its harshest critics laud the retailer's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts," reports Emily Kaiser. And the company is planning a "secret spin strategy to counter a union-backed, anti-Wal-Mart media blitz" that accuses the company of paying poverty-level wages and driving competitors out of business. PR executive Eric Dezenhall, who specializes in corporate responses to activist campaigns, called ongoing criticism of Wal-Mart by organizations like Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart "tone-deaf." He http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2005/09/14/business/01wmcritics.txt|said, "It strikes me as a rather graceless time to launch an attack because it's just a matter of time before this halo burns off. If I were Wal-Mart, I would be glad that my adversaries were attacking in this cycle."

Main Source:

Reuters, September 15, 2005

Comments

RedState Blogger For Wal-Mart

Submitted by Laura Miller on September 21, 2005 - 1:35am.

There's more on Wal-Mart's PR campaign. TAPPED's Franke-Ruta writes, "It's all in a day's work for http://www.redstate.org/|RedState.org co-founder Mike Krempasky, whom Watch reports is ginning up one of his patented online campaigns (remember Rathergate.com) -- on behalf of the low-paying behemoth via his new post at P.R. giant Edelman, which represents Wal*Mart."