US: retail giant Wal-Mart uses bloggers as P.R. mouthpieces

Posted by Dominique Lewis Tuohy on March 8, 2006 at 11:24 AM

The New York Times reports that US retail giant Wal-Mart, largest private employer in the country, has enlisted the help of bloggers to spread positive messages about itself. The way the system works is Wal-Mart and its public relations firms distribute exclusive news about the company to bloggers via email while also suggesting topics for postings. Bloggers may also be invited to visit the company's corporate headquarters. Wal-Mart and its public relations firm Edelman have asserted that they do not 'compensate' bloggers.

What, therefore is the motivation behind the choice of some bloggers to promote Wal-Mart? Here is one possible answer: some of the bloggers in question admitted they were "tantalized by the promise of exclusive news that might attract more visitors to their Web sites."

The problem with this PR campaign, as the NYT points out, is that it "raises questions about what bloggers, who pride themselves on independence, should disclose to readers." The issue is that some bloggers have posted, word for word, positive information about Wal-Mart (written by Wal-Mart or its PR firm) without revealing the source of this information.

Shouldn't bloggers have a responsibility to their readers to disclose their sources of information? The problem is not that Wal-Mart should not be allowed to promote its brand, or indeed that bloggers should not be allowed to promote companies. However, such promotion should be done in a transparent way, and if bloggers are to post promotional text about a company written by that same company, it is only fair that they acknowledge their source.

Source: New York Times