Wal-Mart ads defend reputation

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

The world's largest retailer, increasingly a lightning 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.

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.

In a news release about the ads, Wal-Mart said a survey of its employees nationwide last summer found 88 percent believe the company is a good corporate citizen and 81 percent would recommend a Wal-Mart job to a friend.

Company spokesman David Tovar declined to say how much Wal-Mart is spending on the ads, which were tested last summer in Tucson and Omaha . They will run for an undetermined period on US broadcast and cable networks as well as in a "couple of dozen" individual markets, Tovar said.

Wal-Mart was the focus of two high-profile but unsuccessful efforts last year to legislate how it treats employees.

Maryland's Legislature passed a union-backed law that would have forced Wal-Mart to spend a fixed percentage of payroll on employee health insurance. That law was overturned by a federal court. Chicago's City Council passed an ordinance requiring higher wages at big-box retailers, but it was vetoed by Mayor Richard Daley.

WakeUpWalMart.com, a union-funded campaign group, said the ad campaign proves Wal-Mart is seeing damage to its profits from a worsening reputation.