Wal Mart will lie to America

Wal-Mart Will Defend Reputation in Ads

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By MARCUS KABEL AP Business Writer

January 07,2007 | -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will run national television ads starting Monday praising its record as an employer and corporate citizen, taking its arguments straight to the public in an ongoing battle over its reputation with unions and other critics.

The world's largest retailer, increasingly a lightening rod for politicians as well as labor unions and other activists, cites the legacy of late founder Sam Walton in a folksy 60-second ad. A 30-second ad focuses on Wal-Mart's health insurance plans for its more than 1.3 million U.S. employees.

"It all began with a big dream in a small town, Sam Walton's dream," a narrator says as one ad starts with a black-and-white photo of Sam Walton and a grainy shot of Walton's first five-and-dime store in what is now the chain's headquarters town of Bentonville, Ark.

"Sam's dream. Your neighborhood Wal-Mart," the ad ends.

Both ads recite key points Wal-Mart has been making to reporters for months about its record, but the ads now take the arguments straight to the public.

The nation's largest private employer says it creates tens of thousands of jobs a year, offers employee health plans for as little as $23 a month, saves "the average working family" more than $2,300 a year through its low prices and is a major contributor to local charities with donations last year totaling more than $245 million.

The AFL-CIO should buy time to respond with the truth.

Wal Mart's insurance plan is a joke and it treats it's employees so badly that there are 39 federal lawsuits against the company.