We were going to lead this post off with the line "If anyone needs a strong advertising campaign right now, it's Wal-Mart." But then we got to a line in the article that mentioned that 100 million Americans walk into Wal-Mart every week. Boggling from the shock, we realized that, if anything, Wal-Mart needs a truly negative advertising campaign right now to get people to stop buying from them... perhaps an advertisement for their morning-after pill featuring some goose-stepping jackboots and the slogan "The Holocaust was Hitler's abortion." (Thanks to Ben for the slogan!)

Though not quite negative, Wal-Mart's latest advertising campaign is certainly weak enough: an almost identical facsimile of a series of 1993 Sears ads. Pretty unoriginal, but Wal-Mart is known for its omnivorousness, not its originality. Here's a couple of doppelgangers:

• "We were looking for a refrigerator. But I found something much cooler." (Sears)
• "I went in for eye drops and found something eye opening." (Wal-Mart)

Like Sears before them, Wal-Mart is trying to inform customers that they sell much more than just five gallon drums of mayonnaise. For example, their Exsto line of men's clothing... a brand name so hideous that even the beefiest redneck would turn metrosexual rather than wear one.

Wal-Mart Shows a Similar Side to Sears [New York Times]