Wal-Mart Adversary and New Yorker Magazine Expose 'Cynical Tactics'

Leading Wal-Mart adversary group, Wake Up Wal-Mart (WakeUpWalmart.com), sponsored by the food workers' union, supports the findings of New Yorker Magazine article, Selling Wal-Mart, as it exposes "the brutal truth behind Wal-Mart's multi-million dollar spin machine."

"It is now clear that every new Wal-Mart initiative -- every single one -- was just another publicity stunt by Wal- Mart's PR firm designed to fool the media, the American people, and our elected leaders into believing that Wal-Mart has changed for the better, when in fact it has not," says Communications Director, Chris Kofinis.

According to group, Selling Wal-Mart exposes maneuvers such as how Wal-Mart and Edelman, the company's public relations firm, have used a series of "cynical strategies" and tactics to try to address the company's wavering public image.

Cited as an example is Wal-Mart's use of what it refers to as "Astroturf" groups, which are allegedly fake groups, like "Working Families for Wal-Mart," and goes on to state they exist as a "front for the company." The New Yorker article refers to Wal-Mart and Edelman's strategy as a strategy of "co-option." Under the "co-option" philosophy, Wal-Mart essentially tries to 'co-opt' opposing sources and then use those same sources to change public perceptions, without real change to the actual business model.

Wake Up Wal-Mart notes that Wal-Mart recently announced that it would collaborate with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President ,Andy Stern, to support universal health care. Yet 53 percent of Wal-Mart employees, more than 775,000 Wal-Mart workers and their families do not have company health care coverage. These same uninsured families largely oppose political candidates who do not support universal health care.

"Included in the New Yorker article are a series of insights and shocking statements by Wal-Mart officials that help expose how Wal-Mart's PR spin machine pursues a disingenuous agenda that purposefully manipulates the national media, the public, and our elected leaders in an attempt to salvage its faltering public image," reports Koninis.