Stop the Spin

Shopping at Wal-Mart is your patriotic duty.

Really. The new Wal-Mart commercials say it, so it must be true.

Gone are the days of bouncing happy faces watching for falling prices; in are cheesy campaign commercials claiming that shopping at Wal-Mart buys "a whole lot of freedom."

If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Wal-Mart was running for Congress.

These ads are misleading and ridiculous. This is a company with a track record of treating its employees unfairly, of getting taxpayers to pay its bills and of running jobs out of the United States. Yesterday, I wrote to television stations and state Attorneys General in Arizona and Nebraska to ask that they remove ads from the public airways that are filled with inaccurate statistics.

View the ads and join our call for Wal-Mart to end its "for Wal-Mart" ad campaign:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/dach

These ads are the work Wal-Mart's newest employee: Leslie Dach. Ever heard of him?

After a proud and accomplished career in Washington DC, where he's advised presidents, CEOs, and Kings alike, Dach, a self-proclaimed activist and environmentalist, packed his bags and moved to Arkansas for the job of Executive Vice President Corporate Affairs and Government Relations, a job he's getting paid a reported $3 million for.

It's a new day for Wal-Mart, right? Well, not exactly.

You see, Dach first traded on his political cred in 2005 when he built Wal-Mart's infamous "PR War Room." Under his leadership, Wal-Mart and Dach's team of high-priced Washington consultants (estimated at over $1 million per month) has waged a bruising attack on their critics - a campaign to deflect attention from real issues.

But now they've gone too far.

"Working Families for Wal-Mart," a fake "grassroots group," has been Dach's biggest effort yet. Created with former Ambassador Andrew Young, who served as the sole spokesman until his outrageous comments about inner-city business owners last week, "for Wal-Mart" is a pure political sham.

And this week, taking a page from his old political playbook, Dach has led his new corporate bosses into the wild world of campaign smear ads. Watch the new ads here .

We're not going to let Wal-Mart get away with these ads.

Call on Wal-Mart to end their campaign against accountability:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/dach

The American people want more from the world's largest retailer than a fancy, overproduced television ad - they want higher wages, fair healthcare, eco-friendly policies, and a basic understanding that Wal-Mart's actions impact every aspect of our country's economy.

Leslie Dach isn't fooling anyone.

We can see through the smoke screens of corrupt politicians, and we can see through Wal-Mart's too.

Wal-Mart is going to have to sell a lot more than freedom to the American people to answer for its business policies.

Thank you,

Andrew Grossman
Executive Director

Paid for by WalmartWatch.com, a campaign of Five Stones and The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics