I really enjoy smart Publicity strategies. Every now and then I discover a publicity strategy that so brilliant it makes be giddy. This is one of those moments.
Walmart is one of those iconic brands that is constantly in the news, the media just loves to hate them.
But you must tip your hat to Mr. Dave Tovar, Walmart’s VP of corporate communications, for taking publicity lemons and turning them into a magical publicity lemonade. This was just plain fun!
On June 19, 2014, Mr. Tim Egan, Op-Ed Writer for The New York Times, drew a comparison between Starbucks and Walmart contrasting how they treat their employees, their societal contributions and the economy. No surprise, Mr. Egan criticized Walmart harshly. What was surprising, Walmart fired back in a very smart way, this is teachable moment. See below.
We saw this article in The New York Times and couldn’t overlook how wildly inaccurate it is, so we had some fun with it. I hope you will too.
Here are the links we mentioned in our edits:
1. Associate story re: public assistance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WwGhOhRH38
2. Ed Schultz on Polifact.com re: public assistance: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/may/23/ed-schultz/ed-schultz-says-walmart-worke…
3. Jason Furman on Walmart and the economy: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dialogues/features/2006/is_walmart_good_for_the_amer…
