Great article in this week’s New Yorker about Wal-Mart and its desperate attempts to improve its much tarnished reputation. To his credit, the writer, Jeffrey Goldberg, tries to paint a balanced picture and not trash Wal-Mart, and its P.R behemoth Edelman too much.  But you can’ help but wonder: How sleazy and deeply flawed Wal-Mart is as a company and what would it be like to have them as a client?  You can find the article here:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/02/070402fa_fact_goldberg

The problem with having Wal-Mart as a client, and having to stand by it as vehemently as Edelman does, is to try to genuinely believe in the fact that Wal-Mart can do a lot of good. I really wonder how many of the intelligent sophisticated employees of Edelman really truly believe this.  Sure, Wal-Mart isn’t all bad. Provide thousands of items at great discounts? Check. Employ thousands and possibly scrape people off welfare? Check. Provide medical coverage for employees? Check. Sounds good right? What if that medical coverage has a $3000 deductible, as Goldberg points out, which is unaffordable for those with a salary of $17,000? I can’t afford that kind of a deductible and I have a much better job. What about all the sweatshops where these “cheap” items come from. And all the resistance to unions. How would one “spin” that?

Wal-Mart is a very difficult client. Wal-Mart belongs in its own bucket of sleaze, and whoever gets into that bucket with them becomes almost as sleazy as they are. Working for Wal-Mart is almost equivalent to being Cheney’s publicist. I wonder what kind of a moral breakdown I’d have to go through to be Vice’s spokeswoman. I couldn’t even imagine.

 Just as I was writing this, I learned that New York City blocked Wal-Mart from opening a store here. According to AP, Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council said “We don’t care if they’re never here…We don’t miss them.” Thank you, Ed, we sure don’t.