Wal-Mart Employs Nazi-Era Imagery

Peter Orne writes: After a decade of near silence in the face of criticism and lawsuits, Wal-Mart is running a PR counteroffensive to regain control of its image. As part of a campaign against a Flagstaff, Arizona, ballot proposal restricting if from expanding a local store, it ran a full-page ad of a 1933 photo of people throwing books on a pyre at Berlin’s Opernplatz.

Wal-Mart To Apologize For Ad in Newspaper, by Amy Joyce (Washington Post (5/24/05). Here abridged:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said yesterday that it made a “terrible” mistake in approving a recent newspaper advertisement that equated a proposed Arizona zoning ordinance with Nazi book-burning. The full-page advertisement included a 1933 photo of people throwing books on a pyre at Berlin’s Opernplatz. It was run as part of a campaign against a Flagstaff ballot proposal that would restrict Wal-Mart from expanding a local store to include a grocery.

The accompanying text read “Should we let government tell us what we can read? Of course not . . . So why should we allow local government to limit where we shop?” The bottom of the advertisement announced that the ad was “Paid for by Protect Flagstaff’s Future-Major Funding by Wal-Mart (Bentonville, AR).” The ad, which ran May 8 in the Arizona Daily Sun, was “reviewed and approved by Wal-Mart, but we did not know what the photo was from. We obviously should have asked more questions,” said Daphne Moore, Wal-Mart’s director of community affairs. She said the company will also issue a letter of apology to the Arizona Anti-Defamation League.

Randy Black writes:I fear that Peter Orne’s comments, aside from the facts of the Wal-Mart advertising screw up in Flagstaff, Arizona, are his own editorial opinions, when he says, “After a decade of near silence in the face of criticism and lawsuits, Wal-Mart…” Of course, Wal-Mart has not been silent, nor has it ignored any lawsuits for a decade, or for a week for that matter. To take such a position is preposterous. The background on the advertising brouhaha is interesting. For decades, Wal-Mart has allowed and encouraged travelers, many of who are retirees living on fixed incomes, in recreational vehicles (RVs) to park overnight in their parking lots across the USA. Most Wal-Marts are easy to find, the lots are lit up at night and usually have security cameras. Campers can restock their supplies, get something to eat and be back on the highway with ease.

There are 3,167 Wal-Marts and Sam’s Club stores scattered across the U.S. in communities of all sizes. The company whose founder, Sam Walton, was said to be an RV enthusiast, encourages RVers to park in its lots wherever it’s allowed. The practice is so popular with RV owners that it’s developed its own following, generating its own national publications, Internet chat sites and label: It’s called “boondocking.” Since most Wal-Marts have plenty of excess parking, espcially at night, it’s a win-win deal for all concerned. Wal-Mart allows free, safe parking on the premise that those RVers will buy some of their supplies from that Wal-Mart store while parked there. I say it is a win-win deal…. Except in Arizona, Florida and parts of southern California, where such freedoms are restricted. Yuma, Arizona, is one of those places where overnighting at Wal-Mart is not allowed.

“I’ve only had one problem with parking at Wal-Mart,” said Richard Fuller, of Mesa, Arizona, as he loaded bottled water into a motor home in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Emporia, Kansas. “I pulled in around 10 o’clock at night. There were other RVs there, but in the middle of the night, a cop knocked on our door and said we couldn’t park there.” James Stover, public affairs manager in Yuma, said the city has a 20-year-old ban on any overnight camping without a permit. Campgrounds are big business in Arizona, he said, and allowing travelers to camp overnight for free does not help the business community.? It seems that the commercial campground operators association lobbied the Arizona legislature to pass a law prohibiting overnight parking of RVs in places other than commercial campgrounds. Thus, recently several retirees were awoken at 3 a.m. and told they were parked illegally in a Yuma, Arizona Wal-Mart lot and had to leave or risk arrest.

The concept is so popular among travelers that other chains, including Target Stores, has copied it. By the way, the Arizona group that created the advertisement that was criticized, said the ad was one of a series opposing Proposition 100 (a Flagstaff ballot proposal that would restrict Wal-Mart from expanding a local store to include a grocery). Other ads included a picture of a child praying and a person with duct tape over her mouth. “We wanted people to think about the freedoms we enjoy in America. The intent was wholly honorable and good,” said Chuck Coughlin, president of Highground Inc., a Phoenix consulting company that created the advertisement. “We will not back away from substance of the ads . . . We will apologize for the use of imagery.” “People make mistakes. They move on,” he said. Opponents ran equally offensive ads. Proposition 100 was defeated.

Sources: http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/living/travel/12078135.htm? template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/13/ AR2005051301423.html
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/ 0518bigbox18.html