Wal-Mart shoppers guaranteed ticket to Heaven
A series of Wal-Mart ads are being scrutinized for implying a life style upgrade for consumers who shop exclusively at their stores.
Wal-Mart claims that shoppers will save approximately $2,500 per year. One ad depicts a family setting out on a vacation. Another eavesdrops on a father and son buying a used car. This implication: shop Wal-Mart and live better, is what concerns the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
The New York Times reports:
The watchdog group had no quibble with what it called the “express claim” of Wal-Mart’s ad — that it saves American families $2,500 a year. “The advertiser has provided adequate support for its intended message,” according to the report.
But the group found that the ads — which imply that savings from Wal-Mart allowed the families to take the vacation and buy the car — could lead consumers “to quite reasonably take away the message that families that shop at Wal-Mart will save $2,500 per year more than families that shop at other stores.”
Wal-Mart is coy in their response, saying they never intended the implication, but "would be proud" to revise their campaign based on group's findings.
Give me a break. Wal-Mart is so pompously manipulative in their marketing that it transcends effectiveness and lands somewhere between immoral and insulting. I'd venture a guess that most of Wal-Mart's customers are low-to-moderate income families without the means or resources to see past such dust clouds. Providing product at low cost is an attractive carrot that Wal-Mart, and many other businesses, dangle in front of the consumer. What's troubling to me is this 'glorified savings salvation' actually leads people to spend more. Perceived saving becomes real debt. This notion probably applies more directly to cash advance and rent to own criminals. Still, Wal-Mart needs to step up consumer education to support such vampire claims. Irresponsible business shouldn't come at the expense of the consumer who can't afford it.
4 comments:
That rant went on to long. And I have no real basis behind my claims. I'm just an idiot who likes to shoot his mouth off.
...then run for cover.
I've actually found from shopping at Walmart that the lower prices depends on what you're buying. There are certain items that I've bought at Walmart that would have cost very little, if any, more than had I been shopping somewhere else.
My issues with Walmart are mostly with their receiving policies,coming mostly from my experience as a truck driver.
Of course I hate Roundy's for the same reason,but here in Point I'm forced to choose between the two.
I applied for a job at Wal Mart immediately after graduating high school. They refused to give me a job because I was a male with earrings.
(The main reason is that I'd have to take a drug test. And Lord knows how that would have turned out.)
What man? It's cool.
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