Cut from Raw Story link to Times:
The first big challenge of the strategy will come Nov. 1 with the premiere of an unflattering documentary. "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" was made on a shoestring budget of $1.8 million and will be released in about two dozen theaters. But its director, Robert Greenwald, hopes to show the movie in thousands of homes and churches in the next month. The possibility that it might become a cult hit like Michael Moore's 1989 unsympathetic portrait of General Motors, "Roger & Me," has Wal-Mart worried.
So, Wal-Mart has embarked on a counteroffensive that would have been unthinkable even a year ago. Relying on a preview posted online, Wal-Mart investigated the events described in the film and produced a short video contending the film has factual errors. (Mr. Greenwald denies there are errors and says that Wal-Mart has not seen the final cut.)
Wal-Mart has also begun to promote a second film, "Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People Crazy," which casts the company in a rosier light. Wal-Mart declined to make its executives available for the Greenwald film, but it participated with the second film's director, Ron Galloway. The war room team helped distribute a letter, written by Mr. Galloway, that challenges Mr. Greenwald to show the two movies side-by-side.
To keep up with its critics, Wal-Mart "has to run a campaign," said Robert McAdam, a former political strategist at the Tobacco Institute who now oversees Wal-Mart's corporate communications. "It's simply nonsense for us to let some of these attacks go without a response."
Wal-Mart's aggressive new posture is a departure from its tradition of relying on an internal staff to manage the company's image. The war room, which is part of a larger Wal-Mart effort to portray itself as more worker-friendly and environmentally conscious, runs counter to the philosophy of the chain's founder, Sam Walton. Believing that public relations was a waste of time and money, the penny-pinching Mr. Walton would not likely have hired a public relations firm like Edelman, Wal-Mart's choice to operate its war room.
CUT
Once a darling of Wall Street, Wal-Mart's stock price has fallen 27 percent since 2000, when H. Lee Scott Jr. became chief executive, a drop that executives have said reflects, in part, investors' anxieties about the company's image. Sales growth at stores open for more than a year has slowed to an average of 3.5 percent a month this year, compared with 6.3 percent at Target. And Wal-Mart is facing growing resistance to new urban stores, with high- profile defeats in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
Cut
The contract went to Edelman, which assigned its top two Washington operatives to the account. Wal-Mart would not say what it is paying Edelman, nor would it allow interviews with the war room staff. Mr. Dach, who is active in environmental and Democratic causes, was an outside adviser to President Clinton during the impeachment battle. Mr. Deaver was President Reagan's communications director and the creative force behind Mr. Reagan's so-called Teflon image.
Edelman also dispatched at least six former political operatives to Bentonville, including Jonathan Adashek, director of national delegate strategy for John Kerry, and David White, who helped manage the 1998 re-election of Representative Nancy Johnson, a Connecticut Republican. Terry Nelson, who was the national political director of the 2004 Bush campaign, advises the group.
In turn, Wakeup Wal-Mart is led by, among others, Paul Blank, former political director for the Howard Dean presidential campaign, and Chris Kofinis, who helped create the DraftWesleyClark.com campaign.
Wal-Mart Watch's media team includes Jim Jordan, former director of the Kerry campaign, and Tracy Sefl, a former Democratic National Committee aide responsible for distributing negative press reports about President Bush during the 2004 campaign.
Full story: Here
"A scene from a campaign war room? Well, sort of. It is a war room inside the headquarters of Wal-Mart, the giant discount retailer that hopes to sell a new, improved image to reluctant consumers."
I don't like Wal-Mart and rarely shop there.
However, the term "reluctant customers" hardly applies to most folks.
How can you tell you work for Wal-Mart? By the office furniture!
....and yet in the red states, where people value value and values, WalMart gets a quiet, warm reception.
Breaking news? More Walrmart bashing... nothing new from what I've seen. Some people hate success. Walmart, go sit over there on the bench with Microsoft.
My typical Walmart shopping list (all items made in America):
meat
sausage
tropicana orange juice
milk
eggs
cheese (Vermont, does that count?)
bread
salami
lunchables
cereal
frozen pictsweet vegetables
California Avocados
Georgia onions
Maine lobster
frozen raspberries (Washington State)
Saltines
Lysol
Wisk
Clorox
Cascade
Hanes socks
Hanes undergarments
Crayola Crayons
These items are all MADE in AMERICA
before we got our SuperWally, the closest department store of ANY KIND for me was twenty miles away and even further for the other 2/3 of the county. that's two gallons of gas times the thousands of customers a day 365 days a year saved by our SuperWally, not counting all the accidents avoided from not having to drive to another county for everything year round(think Snow/Ice) PLUS the sales tax the county gets let alone all the jobs and pretty soon you're talkin real money.
My best friend, who has always been non political, was bragging about picketing her local Walmart for her union. She proceeded to give me the usual song and dance about evil Walmart. I would really hate to lose a friend of over 25 years. I did ask her to ask some questions at her next union meeting. I tried to explain how unions have sent our work to other countries. She just responded that she doesn't care about the rich in this country. Evil corporations, etc. sigh
Robert Greenwald Film
PREMIERE WEEK is November 13th-19th. 3000+ screenings in 19 countries and all 50 states are already in the works for the largest grassroots mobilization in movie history.
Confessions of a Walmart Hitman
Betty's Employee Discount
"The NY Post trashes the film after watching the trailer, which is more research than they normally do for an article. Sure, we understand why Murdoch's rag doesn't like us, but to go out of their way to disparage New Yorkers claiming they care more about "cheap cereal" than justice? Someone's out to lunch." (10/22) Full Article »
Those of us who shop there are getting tired of also having to defend the company. Not that customers Vs Union goons isn't a fair fight.
We've got the edge 'cause unions are the original "stuck on stupid". Still this is nice. Customers and conservatives could use the help... Thanks Walmart.
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 11, 2004; Page D01
Robert Greenwald, an admirer of Michael Moore, is trying to give Fox News Channel the kind of cinematic spanking that Moore just delivered to President Bush in "Fahrenheit 9/11."
But Greenwald, whose last movie was "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War," makes no effort at fairness or balance himself. Not only did he avoid contacting Fox, and indulge in some misleading editing, but the film also features a parade of the network's liberal detractors -- including Al Franken, Vermont Rep. Bernie Sanders, the group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting and out-of-the-closet liberal columnist Walter Cronkite.
http://www.robertgreenwald.org/timages/robert_greenwald.jpg
Greenwald is the recipient of awards and honors for his political work by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; the L.A. chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; Physicians for Social Responsibility; and the Office of the Americas. He is a co-founder (with Danny and Victor Goldberg) of RDV Books, as well as the co-founder (with Mike Farrell) of "Artists United," a group of actors and others opposed to the war in Iraq, which continues to work toward publicizing progressive causes.
Dear activists, colleagues and friends,
Well the attacks have begun, no surprise there, but the fact they are attacking so hard, so early and so personally vicious is a sign of how seriously they are treating the film [Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price]. And they should, the film combined with the expose in the New York Times about their duplicity, they say one thing, they do another, should be a one two punch in the butt of corporate hypocrisy.
And we need your help, they have a high priced, expensive PR machine that is in full throttle. But we have you, so write, call, visit your local newspaper, radio, tv station. Tell them how Wal-Mart has affected you, your family, your job, your health care, your community. Tell them why you are working to host a screening and spreading the word. Show them the trailer and talk them through why Wal-Mart is DEAD WRONG. You can find all the latest on Wal-Mart's Fear and Smear Campaign here.
They just released a video smear job and backgrounder, ON THE TRAILER. And they don't even get the attacks right, claiming snowfall in Ohio proves Wal-Mart did not crush H&H Hardware. The movie is quite clear on what crushed H&H Hardware, and it's got nothing to do with snow. It's a poignant example of the Wal-Mart effect, and you'll all get a chance to see it soon.
The other two attacks on the trailer are nothing but Wal-Mart's multi-million dollar spin machine at work trying to refute very well documented facts about Wal-Mart's discriminatory practices against women and minorities, and their stubborn refusal to pay a living wage.
And now Wal-Mart wants us to take down the trailer! Send a message to Wal-Mart by sending the trailer to everyone you know, and inviting them to a screening.
This is the perfect time to counter them, quickly, strongly and completely. They are spending millions hiring expensive PR firms to fight us because they are scared out of their minds at what you can do. They are messing with the wrong folks, and lets go right back at them. Thanks for your support and your efforts. We have aleady made an impact, and it will grow.
Robert Greenwaldproducer/director, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
P.S. Just 6 weeks ago, Wal-Mart's top spokesperson, Mona Williams said: "I guess we will pretty much ignore it -- because to all but a handful of anti-Wal-Mart activists, it simply will be irrelevant." Mona guessed wrong.
P.P.S. Check out some extended bonus scenes with a former Wal-Mart manager Weldon Nicholson. He talks about the culture of fear and retaliation. Confessions of a Wal-Mart Hit Man.
******
I must go shopping at WAL-MART!!! I have a few more items to add to my shopping list!
I think I'll stop by Sam's Club on the way back from WAL-MART also!
There is nothing worse than a liar who can't mind his own business, besides an admirer of Michael Moore! I'll shop where I damn well please!
Robert Greenwald is a movie producer and sometimes director. His parents were both psychologists, as are his brother and sister.
Early in Greenwald's career, he made TV schlock like Sharon: Portrait of a Mistress and Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold. On the big screen, he brought you Gene Kelly's last musical, Xanadu (1980), for which Greenwald won a Golden Raspberry as Worst Director.
Long driven to make political "message" films, he brought Farrah Fawcett respect in The Burning Bed, a critically-acclaimed 1984 melodrama wherein Fawcett took vengeance on her abusive husband. Greenwald also directed Steal This Movie (2000), based on Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, with Vincent D'Onofrio in a frizzy wig playing Hoffman.
Greenwald and Hoffman's wife Anita had been friends and neighbors in the 1970s. When Abbie Hoffman became a fugitive from justice on cocaine charges, Greenwald was one of the few people Hoffman occasionally called on the phone.
In recent years, Greenwald has been making leftist political documentaries, like Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (yes, that election was stolen), Uncovered: The War on Iraq (yes, the 2003 war was sold to Americans with distortions of U.S. intelligence), and Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties (yes, with the so-called PATRIOT Act, people are being 'detained' without charges by police agencies in America).
Greenwald's documentaries are generally outraged instead of objective. They're rarely screened in movie theaters, and are sneered at if they're mentioned at all by the mainstream media.
HE (Mr. Filmmaker/Producer) THINKS YOU ARE STUPID!!!
Greenwald: why are the people voting against their self-interest? Why aren't people recognizing that the progressive positions are good for them?
