This has been going around “the blogosphere” lately (like “the Information Super Highway,” I expect that this term will become increasingly embarrassing to most of us as we get older and Al Gore claims to have created it) and it’s not quite what it appears, but it’s worth a post: coming out of Grand Central Station, Mihow from the eponymous Mihow.com encountered a raucous crowd of what appeared to be anti-Wal-Mart protesters. They handed him some literature, which then turned out to actually be pamphlets from Wal-Mart Watch.

This lead a lot of people to think that Wal-Mart was engaging in viral marketing. Leaving Edelman out of the equation, you can understand why they’d be confused: the literature actually appears to be supporting Wal-Mart, as opposed to merely listing the ideals Wal-Mart should be living up to. In actuality, Wal-Mart Watch appears to be a relatively balanced and mature organization… they certainly don’t seem like the kind of guys who’d run around Grand Central Station shouting “New York Without Wal-Mart!”

Let’s face it: most Wal-Mart hate is pure limo liberal anti-capitalism, plain and simple. From their webpage, Wal-Mart Watch seems to be better than that: they don’t want Wal-Mart destroyed, they want Wal-Mart to live up to the corporate responsibilities they’re neglecting. Everyone wins.

Our bet is someone from this protesting group just downloaded the first PDF they found in a Google search for “Wal-Mart literature.” Probably not the best choice. Like most protests, just a piss poor showing all around.

Wal-Mart Goes Viral. Maybe [Mihow]

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