Wal-Mart's Good Deeds

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

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 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
Topics: 
Crisis Management
Corporate Social Responsibility
Labor

Comments

Laura Miller replied on

There's more on Wal-Mart's PR campaign. TAPPED's [http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2005/09/index.html#007721|Garance Franke-Ruta writes], "It's all in a day's work for [http://www.redstate.org/|RedState.org] co-founder Mike Krempasky, whom [http://walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/dirty_stores_dirty_tricks/|Wal*Mart 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."