Wal-Mart advised to discontinue ad claims
Misleading advertising statements are revealed as The National Advertising Division of the Council of the Better Business Bureaus advised Wal-Mart to cease the use of their advertising which was a component of their “Save Money. Live better,” campaign. The year-old campaign used a claim of saving consumers $2,500 each year by shopping at their stores, according to an article in Ad Age.
The campaign which was introduced last year was by Interpublic Group of Cos.’
After receiving the statement from the NAD, Wal-Mart has removed the savings statement from their magazine and TV ads yet have left them on the company’s website, although clarifying the claim so that consumers understand that the savings are not necessarily from shopping at the retailer.
In a world surrounded by so many media messages and claims in advertising, it is reassuring to both consumers and those in the industry that the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureaus is monitoring claims closely. By keeping the advertising industry responsible for the legitimacy of their messages, will maintain a more trustworthy image of our industry which has so many negative stereotypes held by the public. On the other hand, stories such as this one focusing on not-so-honest claims by major corporations in their advertising, can have a negative impact on the way consumers filter media messages, which adds to other ongoing struggles such as media fragmentation.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=126062
posted by Angelique @ 6:39 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
I agree that the job of the NAD is very important, specifically in situations like this one with Wal-Mart. However, I do have to wonder have effective the NAD can possibly be with the high amount of advertising clutter in today's media. Wal-Mart is such a large, well-known corporation that their advertising falsities may be easier to notice. Because of Wal-Mart's size and impact on many in the population, I think the NAD made a good decision in restricting the corporation's claims.
The fact is that Walmart owns the" major savings" spot in the retail world. They were smart enough and clever enough to effectively capitalize on the whole save major money benefit and to make it their brand identity. They have positioned themselves above other competing lower priced stores, and you can't take that away from them.
Now, am I saying that you can't save as much money in K-mart, I don't know, and maybe you can. But, as the article states, competitors have come down in price to compete with Walmart's already lower prices. So, without Walmart, nobody would have these lower prices to begin with. Thus, in my mind, Walmart still has the rights to claim they will save you X amount of dollars more in comparison because they set the price bar anyway. Why should competitors benefit from a movement that Walmart put in place.
In my opinion, they have all the rights to keep their current slogan and claims. It works, people are picking WalMart over competitors, and as far as I can see, the company is doing nothing wrong.
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