In a publicity juggernaut of heroic proportions, a grassroots campaign is doing what for many low-budget efforts would be PR suicide: going against retail behemoth Wal-Mart
with an independent documentary called "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices." This Robert Greenwald movie is being purchased and screened by hundreds (maybe thousands) of people
nationwide who want to spread the message that shopping at Wal-Mart is bad for the country.
Wal-Mart's army of PR pros already had its hands full with a year's worth of poor publicity (see Messaging Meter, p. 5), but it wasted no time in responding to the attack with
a full-throttle rebuttal that includes press packets that dismantle the documentary's claims, increased CEO speaking engagements and a pro-Wal-Mart documentary to be released
later this month. While the direct outcome of the showdown is still unclear, it's certainly an exercise in PR muscle flexing worth noting.