Wal-mart insults us

Why do big companies do this? Walmart has released a blog, Wal-marting Across America, not talking about their 'every day low prices', not telling their side of the story, but a fake blog written by two people who supposedly are going around the country staying at Wal-marts. Business Week outed them, their relationship with Wal-mart, and PR firm Edlemen relationship with Laura. Today they posted a whiny article about how they had this idea, asked Wal-mart if they could do it and Wal-mart was so cool they decided to sponsor it.

Even if that story is true, why not disclose it up front? Also, what sense does this kind of blog make? If you want to get Wal-mart's side of the story out, why not just create a blog that tells the story directly? This coming after it was discovered that Wal-mart was recruiting bloggers to write positive articles without disclosure. You gotta wonder what Edlemen is doing. This isn't good strategy, it's ill conceived tactics where the consequences haven't been well thought out.

I'm not a Wal-mart basher. I shop there and actually think they help the economy by lowering prices for consumers overall. However, this tactic is just stupid. There's a simple lesson here that Wal-mart doesn't get. When working in the blogoshpere, be transparent. (via Marketing Vox)
- Paul Herring