Don't you think Walmart commercials are strange?

[Hamlette]

Is there any other company out there which advertizes not the product they sell but what great people they are to work for?

Seems like nothing but a PR campaign. But I'm wondering, do people shop at Walmart because of the commercials that say they treat their employees well? I must admit that it works. I think better of Walmart because of the ads. But I know better. I know how awful the store is and would never shop there. Maybe it's not PR at all but a new gimick in advertising.

Anyone know? Wanna guess?

[illflem]

1. I alway thought the main purpose of those ads

was propagana for building new Walmarts.
There has been much opposition to new Walmarts in some areas.

[LuCifer]

4. GOOD!

Hats off to all who protest their community for trying to bring this crap company into their cities and towns! Too bad my area didn't do so...GRRR.

Lu

[Hamlette]

10. ahhh, good guess

oddly enough, a rural town in Utah (Big Bush country) stopped a Walmart from being built. One of the big issues was traffic. Which is way down on my list of reasons to hate Walmart.

Yeah, it could well be selling themselves as good employers so people will want them to move in.

[RPM]

41. close...

I always thought the ads to be a rebuttal to popular allegations of being anti-worker drags on society in the hopse of assuaging the wounded consciences of those shopping there and Sam's club.

Or perhaps i was feeling guilty for shopping at Sam's.

No worries - we're a costco family now.

[LuCifer]

2. Analmart is just strange PERIOD!

Kathie Lee sweatshop clothing, building stores on Native American burial grounds, "hiring" illegal immigrants AND NOT PAYING THEM, forcing workers to work overtime AND NOT GET PAYED, etc. and so on...NOPE! Nothing to see here! Everybody move along!

Quite simply:
Butthead voice - Uh, they like, SUCK! Huh huh huh huh!
Beavis voice - Yeah! Huh huh huh huh! And they SUCK too!

Lu Cifer

[Old and In the Way]

3. Sorta like Exxon telling us what great stewards they are of the

environment.

RE Wal-Mart, it's pretty easy to get people to sing praises to a company when that person lives paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to lose that job.

[China_cat]

18. It's even easier

when you're hiring actors that never put in a day in one of your stores.

[ewagner]

5. Institutional Advertising

Quite often marketing surveys show that sales are or can be depressed by the public perception of the "likeability" of the company. So the company counters by trying to create a warm, fuzzy feeling.

In Walmart's case they are trying to convince people that they're really an employee-friendly corporation to counter the "almost slave labor" reports that are going around.

[Goathead]

6. It is propaganda

They are creating an atmosphere of contentment within the consumer mind. They are saying that Wal-mart is not just about selling products, it's about a "consumer family" that you come to visit when you do your shopping. That is why every single Wal-mart store is layed out in almost the exact same way. It's all about familiarity, it's so you can go to a Walmart in Tampa Bay, Florida or Boise, Idaho and know exactly where something is. It's brain-washing.

[Chipper Chat]

11. I'm waiting for them to change their name to....

AMERImart

[norml]

7. They are not selling products. They are selling a lifestyle.

They are selling themselves and their people as having all positive personal characteristics. If you join them or let them join you then you too can have all those positive personal characteristics.

[Done]

8. "Don't you think Walmart commercials are strange?"

For years Wal-mart promoted themselves as selling almost nothing but American made goods, when in fact, Wal-mart led the way in outsourcing. This latest campaign is just as phony. I'm sure Wal-mart employees are loyal because of the scarceness of jobs. (Thanks in large part to Wal-mart).

Done

[chookie]

16. The modern employment choice for America: WalMart or the Army?

Welcome to DU, Done! :hi:

[newyawker99]

19. Hi Done!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[yorkiemommie1]

9. i had to go into a walgreen's today

w/ the gal i was riding w. i didn't / wouldn't buy a thing!

it was nasty of them to build right across the street from a long established drugstore.

[musette_sf]

12. It's Wal-MART, not Walgreens...

but I had a particularly bad shopping experience at the local Walgreens this weekend. Won't be going back to that location. Salvation Army guy outside, and Tim LaHaye "Left Behind" books featured at the cash register.

Location is Paseo Padre and Mowry in Fremont CA. Do not shop there!

[jokerman93]

28. That's the one I go too

correction: used to go to.

[Chipper Chat]

13. Not to promote those commercials, but

WalMart was very clever to have their ads feature "ordinary-looking" people, including overweight women.
Check it out: 99% of mainstream commercials you see on TV feature gaunt-faced ladies that look like they haven't had a meal in six months!

[AngryOldDem]

26. Seen their print ads?

The print ads feature Wal-mart employees as well as customers.

[Tracer]

14. Yes, they are a bit odd.

I'd like to know which Walmart these happy employees work in.

The only WM that I've ever been in was full of bored and unhappy-looking people. Furthermore, they were the stupidest, most inefficient sales help that I've ever encountered.

[chookie]

15. My fave

The weirdest one, in my opinion. is the one that celebrates the WalMart employee who rescued the family from the burning car wreck. The American HeroTM says, "We're trained at WalMart to care about people."

So, the untold story is that a KMart employee saw the people in the burning car, and just drove by, and that a Target employee parked to giggle and watch them burn to death, because they are not trained to care about people? Obviously....

What they are selling is that WalMart=USA=Jesus.

Also love the one about the kid with a serious illness, who would have died if his Dad hadn't worked for WalMart. HUH? No, most other corporations are not so brazen to even try to brag about how they "save lives" by, presumably, offering some few employees health insurance.

Their profits are down this holiday season. The bastards who run that shithole are tasting a bit of Instant Karma. The poor folks who lost their fucking JOBS because of Walmart's commercial imperialism can't afford to shop there anymore..... Only part of the economic sector that is doing well this year is -- GUESS??? -- luxury items. People who wear cashmere underwear can buy more of it, whereas people who wear flannel shirts can't afford them any more. Way to go, Wallie!!

[LifeDuringWartime]

30. !

are those actual ads?

glad i dont watch much tv

[chookie]

40. I WISH I was making this shit up

Yes, those are descriptions of two commercials that I have seen repeatedly when I "monitor" ABC News Tonight with Peter Lemmings.

There is also a "We support the troops!" and "take care of the family members left behind during their time of sacrifice for our freedom" ad that they have floated recently. Presumably KMart employees are rooting for bin Laden.

[Piperay]

33. I'll never forget the ad from a few years back

(cause me & my family still like to make fun of it) with the woman who said she was a 'widder woman' and she is 'exerberated' by Walmart and 'hap hap happy all of the time'. :puke: :puke: :puke:

[xerox]

17. Sam

was against commercials. After he died they changed that. He believed in the word of mouth as advertisement.

[EC]

20. look at human resources on their site

They really have to jump through hoops to get to the management jobs they are saying people will get if they work there. And remember the ones being hired now-a-days don't get enough hours for the "terrific" insurance they are glorifing in the commercials. (The one with the kid who needed medical care and because his Dad worked for wal-mart his kid was saved). It's all hype so more towns will allow them to be built and ruin their community. Oh, yeah we help your town as one commercial says, every thing they say they do is usually required of any retail business in town. And I really hate their acting like they are the only ones being taught to "do the right thing" like everyone isn't taught that from an early age, it takes wal-mart to teach us that? Bullcrap....

[Lefty48197]

21. Walmart has taken a public relations beating in the last couple of years

due to all the accusations of workers being abused. They are spending millions of dollars on a propoganda campaign to try and convince us that they aren't as bad as their record.

[manic expression]

22. I hate to ask this, but...

I'm not familiar with Walmart and what it has done wrong. Why is it so hated by DUers (again, I'm sorry I don't know why, but I have to learn sooner or later)?
I cannot conscientiously believe in something without knowing the truth. I just wanted to clarification.

[SmokingJacket]

27. Read "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich

Really, a terrific book. Talks about how poorly treated/paid Walmart employees are.

I know that in my hometown, WalMart is the last place you go, if you can't get a job anywhere else.

Easy enough to google if you want hard stats.

[manic expression]

29. Thanks. n/t

[Lone_Wolf]

39. They extract the wealth right out of a community...

In the days of the Mom and Pop shops... people spent their money in their community and it tended to stay within the community... Now with corporations like Walmart, people spend their money in the stores which is sucked right out and into the private profits of Walmart's major stock holders (like the Walton family)

When a Walmart targets a community for a new store, the first thing they try to tell people is Walmart is good for the community... It brings jobs, money, etc. Essentially, they are trying to get people to believe that Walmart somehow makes an area richer by money flowing out of Walmart and into the community. Evidence suggests the opposite is true. That is, when a Walmart comes into a community, it takes the wealth out of a community.

[antigone382]

23. They have such a huge PR problem.

They've GOT to start running these commercials to try to fool people, or it *will* start to have an impact on their sales. I can't believe that Wal-Mart's less than enthusiastic performance thus far during the Christmas season is entirely coincidental. Just about everybody has some reason to hate them--I won't go into all the reasons why we hate them, because we all know them. Even guys like Neal Boortz diss Wal-Mart because of their abuse of the eminent domain clause, as well as hiring illegal immigrants, and members of the Religious Right (gag) hate them for getting so much from China, a country that has compulsory abortions.

If they don't do something to fight the tidal wave of bad PR, they'll suffer, even if their suffering isn't enough to take them down (not yet anyway :evilgrin:).

[n2mark]

24. Walmart

I don't fall for their advertisements saying how wonderful it is working for them. I've known many people who were overworked and treated poorly while being an employee there.
It has been a long time since shopping at that place mainly because their employees seemed very unhappy. Besides their stores just seem to be trashy, can't move in their narrow aisles, boxes all over the place, and the stores just feel dirty.

[jmowreader]

37. The employees aren't overly bright either

Now that Wal-Mart has decided to go after Home Depot, we have added them to our "let's spy on them" list.

On Friday I was spying on Wal-Mart and saw some cans of roof sealant sitting there on the shelf in the paint department with no price tags. I found a paint department employee and asked her how much the roofing tar was. "We sell roofing tar?" Yeah, let me show it to you. "Oh, so THAT's what that is!" She thought it was a new kind of paint!

On a lot of Wal-Mart's lines, you can put them in a serious hurting with a little product knowledge.

[pstokely]

25. where do they find the happy employees for the ads?

?

[0007]

32. The day after the social security check arrives

?

[Catherine Vincent]

35. Money talks.

[OxQQme]

31. In the shadow

Fight over Wal-Mart at Mexico ruins


TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) -- Burning incense and sounding a conch shell horn, residents of an ancient Mexican city protested on Saturday at the construction of a Wal-Mart store on the edge of the ruins.

The sprawling warehouse-style Bodega Aurrera, a unit of Wal-Mart in Mexico, is due to open in December in Teotihuacan, a major archeological site outside Mexico City.

Opponents say it will ruin a way of life that dates back centuries and have taken legal action to stop it, in a fight that gives a grand dimension to the classic battle between big business and small-town values.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/09/11/mexico.walmart.reut/

"What they are doing in Teotihuacan is destroying Mexico's deepest roots for short-term interests like lower prices," local teacher Emanuel D'Herrera told about a dozen protesters outside Teotihuacan's town hall. "This is the flag of conquest by global interests, the symbol of the destruction of our culture."

Other protesters bearing placards against the "gringo business" entered the town hall and pledged to stay there until the mayor heard them out.

U.S.-based Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, faces increasing opposition in the United States as it stretches beyond its rural roots and into urban areas. Voters in a Los Angeles suburb recently rejected a Wal-Mart supercenter, and other communities have passed ordinances blocking its so-called big-box stores.

The Teotihuacan construction site lies less than a mile (1.6 km) from the gated tourist park housing the main ruins and is visible from atop the Pyramid of the Sun that has defined the skyline for 2,000 years.
Uphill battle

[TheWebHead]

34. yeah, they're politically motivated propoganda

but I'm heartened with the news that Wal-Mart's November sales have been below expectations while many others in the retail space have outperformed... Hopefully the wal-mart backlash is starting to gain ground -- at least enough to stem their growth rate. I've never stepped foot in a wal-mart and never hope to... As long as they keep their mitts off Costco I'll be ok.

[atommom]

36. Wal-Mart has hurt its employees in many, many ways....

These links are only the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040628&s=featherstone
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021216&c=1&s=featherstone
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

[SemperEadem]

38. between Walmart and Jeebus

what's a confused fundamental-case to do? Who'll save me better?