Wal-Mart To Apologize For Ad in Newspaper

Saturday, May 14, 2005; Page E01

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.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/13/AR2005051301423.html

They go and one-up themselves.

Even without the Nazi connection.

This company is disgusting. Besides, they censor the content of CDs and videos editions they sell in their stores. Harumph, book burning, indeed. :puke:

The WalMart jackholes are invoking Nazi book-burning imagery to make their case? The same WalMart that's happy to dictate what music, movies, and books their shoppers can buy and what they can't?

Words simply don't exist to describe how much I hate WalMart. They've run my hometown into the sewer.

Glad to have you here :hi:

(but not Jon Stewart)

I boycott all Wahl-Martz no matter where they build!

:beer:

bastards.

welcome to DU :hi:

Won't carry Daily Show's book. Regularly censors CDs. Textbook hypocrisy.

this Squal-Mart takeover of our Main Streets horrifies me.

Clean and Squal-Mart free for more than 5 years.
Not a penny.

Shopping Wal-Mart = Buying your own economic death

Here's a link to the outrage from Northern Arizonians:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1467075


GOP Corporate Fundies wants a GOP Jesus in Pharmaceuticals:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=217x1478

then, since they are so against censorship now.

Walmart can kiss my ass.

very young (thus not recognizing the era of the picture) or very uneducated (thus not recognizing the era of the picture and the actions that were actually taking place within it).

I'm putting my money on a daily double that it was actually both.

Insensitivity brought on by ignorance, which only stresses what you surmise.

It's hard to understand how anyone would/could authorize such an image in an advertisement.

It's amazing that they let that pass through without a question. With all their profits one would think that they would have a legal arm to their advertising department that KNEW a bit about not offending the very people you were trying to sway to your side.

And, as long as we're looking at it, why didn't the newspaper question the picture? Could it be another case of, they just don't know what they were looking at, or they just don't care as long as the check doesn't bounce?

It's despicable that it made it all the way to distribution without someone along the line raising an objection.

doing. The only mistake Wal-Mart made in approving and running the ad was incorrectly anticipating the response. If the ad had not met with so much criticism, Wal-Mart would be running it over and over around the country.

I think the excuse for ignorance is that they're Republicans. It works for bush; it should work for them.

Dipwads.

I got ONE question.
HOW much does Wally-World's "Director of Community Affairs" make in salary?

If it's more than Minimum Wage for a 24-hour week, it's too gawdamm much. It pisses me off to NO END to see and hear of people who are too fucking STUPID to swab out my TOILET in positions that obviously compensate them better than I am...

"We obviously should have asked more questions..."

As R. Lee would have said, "Well......No SHIT!"

I like your comment: "It pisses me off to NO END to see and hear of people who are too fucking STUPID to swab out my TOILET in positions that obviously compensate them better than I am".

I could say that about most of the folks I worked under for 30+ years. The difference between you and I - and them - is this: First, we're smarter than they are; no doubt about that. But far more importantly, we have a conscience. We'd both starve before we'd become whores for something we don't believe in. There's not enough money in the world to buy us off, and at the end of the day, our integrity and our honor survives intact. I think the same could be said for just about everyone who posts here. Cheers from Iowa to you, and to all fellow DU'ers.

I used to think it was just "Wrench Turner" pride that made me think I was smarter than my superiors, but you know what? After over 30 years in the workforce, I think "The Peter Principle" is ALL TRUE.

The more STUPID you are, the higher you float. Don't take my word for it, just look at the GOP and RNC. Bugman DeLay is a mental giant? Don't make me laugh. Shrubby? Wolfenstien? Rumsferatu? Ha! Good suck-ups, that's all. Partied their way through college on their old man's dime so now they have the paper that says they're supposed to be smart....

Shrubya has a well-documented "Reverse Midas Touch", in that everything that boy has laid his hands to has turned to SHIT, this country included....

Welcome aboard, and I like your avatar, being a USLHS buff myself...

to point this out? We have a disgracefully corrupt nation!
http://www.clickondetroit.com/entertainment/3879467/detail.html

From the lowest of the low.

I even puke when I see their trucks racing down the highway.

America, wake up before it's too late!

I have covered Wal-Mart since about 1990, and while I think they are pretty evil, and fairly stupid, this is just so out there...I am shocked. I had the good fortune to meet Richie Roberts, Oral's son, in Tulsa when his father was still up in the tower praying for $5 million or may he be struck dead. I said, so Richie, your dad been struck dead yet, you freak? If looks could kill, I would have left prone. These people are such FREAKS, you would not believe it. They think nothing about praying that Target will die.

But I never expected THIS. Good lord, exalting nazis. This has to be smeared EVERYWHERE.

Then why do they restrict the sale of some books and magazines?

Would they want foundries built next to their shopping center?

How about a strip joint or adult store?

Would they have a problem with 20 gas stations completely surrounding them?

It might well have been intentional. To be against Wal-Mart is to be against America (i.e. a Nazi) was probably the intended emotional message. They went ahead and got their message out, and are making the necessary phony protestations now that they have been called on it.

I can't believe Wal-Mart management didn't see the image beforehand.

Couldn't be anything but.

Union-busting, media-censoring, Bush-promoting Wal-Mart accusing others of fascism?

That's like lessons in age-appropriate sexuality from Michael Jackson.

reaffirming my strong belief that WalMart, is indeed, the devil...

:evilgrin:

The devil...the Beast...the AntiChrist...that covers the spectrum of evil, biblically speaking. Scary!

Tired Old Cynic

...when WalMart will be more than happy to do the job instead?

The hypocrisy is astounding, the insensitivity is beyond belief, the depravity is overwhelming. And low low prices, too! (until the local competition is driven away)

Wal-Mart watches every penny, every item of inventory and every person who comes and goes to every single one of their stores. And I'm supposed to believe they didn't know where that picture was from?

It's just as plausible to say that Wal-Mart CHOSE the picture because it is now Public Domain and they wouldn't have to pay any royalties to use it!

A great man told me that once. It seems Walmart heard it, too.

This is despicable; but what I expect from them.

Seriously. In one of the original 25 points of the NSDAP platform, it was outlined that department stores should be nationalized as a step to redistributing their sales floors to small businesses. Someone didn't do their homework ;-)

Nazi book-burning ad offends local veterans
Topic started by LiviaOlivia on May-12-05 06:06 PM (19 replies)
Last modified by Maat on May-12-05 10:02 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1467075


Wal-Mart stock and morale battered, woes pile up
Topic started by Zorra on May-13-05 12:38 PM (78 replies)
Last modified by bling bling on May-14-05 02:58 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1469691

U.S. lawmakers seek Wal-Mart pay data
Topic started by Rose Siding on May-12-05 06:48 PM (5 replies)
Last modified by AndyTiedye on May-12-05 11:34 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1467187http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1467187

Consumer Still King. Wal-Mart Slipping?
Topic started by zippy890 on May-12-05 04:40 PM (4 replies)
Last modified by no_vote_no_count on May-12-05 06:59 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1466798

Note that some Republican FReeper left on my windshield
Proceeds go to Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays
Tiny-Url Link: http://tinyurl.com/8e3zt

I refuse to give them a hit. It STILL blows my mind they are/were selling it, AND defending it by saying they were selling historically-legitimate literature.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=4e5a0123bce8c539

Big News Network.com Sunday 15th May, 2005 (UPI)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has apologized for a newspaper ad that compared a proposed Arizona zoning ordinance with Nazi atrocities.

The Washington Post reports that the full-page ad in the Arizona Sun showed people throwing books into a fire in Berlin in 1933. The ad was paid for by Wal-Mart and run by a group called Protect Flagstaff's Future.

The 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?

more...

Is this totally amazing how far Walmart will go to get a store put in!!!

What a bunch of morans.

The practice is called "zoning."

If a city doesn't want a porn shop, liquor store or a Wal-Mart within it's boundaries, they have every right to say no.

As far as porn shops in particular, a city has to provide a place where they will be permitted. They try to make it so restrictive as to zone them out of business, but when challenged, the city must prove that there are suffienct venues for an adult business to open.

I'd cite the Supreme Court case, but I have other fish to fry today...

Nuf said.

I was director of marketing at a large metropolitan medical center. They had an annual fundraiser and wanted to call it "A Crystal Night." I was shocked, and somewhat embarrassed that they had no idea what
"kristalnacht" inferred in the run up to the holocaust. I was fortunate that I was able to inform the right person that it was a horrible mistake to consider it.

The fact that the add says "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?"
Shows you what hypocrites they are. Walmart is famous for preventing books and music from being sold in there stores because of lyrics and writings they do not approve (george Carlin's last book I think was one of them). The fact there the number one store in the country affects these products from reaching the hands of the consumer.


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