title: “Bad Timing” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-24” author: “John Reed”
Last month, amidst a string of high-profile kidnappings across the country, Wal-Mart launched a national back-to-school ad campaign that featured a suburban mom turning her school-age children loose at the superstore with shopping lists. The camera then turned onto her kids as they disappeared in a maze of discount displays-not an image, or a message, parents found appropriate after a rash of child kidnappings this summer.
The ads, created by Bernstein-Rein, a Kansas City-based agency, were pulled on July 25 after customers complained. “After we reviewed it and we were made aware of customers’ concerns with it, we took it off the air,” says Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark.
Still, the commercial’s four-day run followed two of the latest in a series of high-profile kidnappings. On July 16, Samantha Runnion, a 5-year-old girl was kidnapped as she played outside her Stanton, Calif., home and later found murdered. A week later, a 7-year-old Philadelphia girl narrowly escaped the kidnappers who’d snatched her up from her grandmother’s home. And the day after the ads were pulled, another kidnapping case ended in tragedy when a 6-year-old girl was found murdered hours after being abducted from her father’s St. Louis home.
Parenting experts say the ad sent the wrong message, regardless of the timing and applaud the decision to yank it off the air. “Adults need to be hanging out near their children, whether it’s to give a hug or reassurance or just to be there,” says Karen Deerwester, founder and CEO of Family Time, which provides parental and child-development services. “It is really important for parents to be powerful and in control.”
Wal-Mart’s Clark says the ad was replaced this week with others in Wal-Mart’s back-to-school rotation while the agency re-edits it. The new version will feature the same family, but the offending scenes will be removed and the script changed. The new commercial should begin airing next week. “Safety is a top priority to us, and we have a long-standing commitment there,” Clark says.
The timing and ensuing controversy of the ad is ironic for Wal-Mart, which began a campaign to track down missing children in June 1996 by posting pictures of missing children in the entrances of its stores nationwide. More than 3,100 children have been featured, and more than two thirds of them have been recovered-70 of them with the assistance of a Wal-Mart customer or employee. The company would not comment on the cost of pulling the ad and replacing it with a re-edited version, and calls to Bernstein-Rein were referred back to Wal-Mart.
Whatever the price tag, the added cost couldn’t have been welcome news at Wal-Mart headquarters. Retailers have already been hit hard this season, as consumers seem to be foregoing-or at least postponing-back-to-school binge shopping this summer in favor of smaller purchases. On Thursday, Wal-Mart said that sales in its stores were lower than expected last week and warned that July sales would probably come in at the low end of its forecast. Earlier in the week, the Conference Board announced that consumer confidence sank nine points in July, the worst drop since last fall and an ominous sign since consumer spending accounts for two thirds of U.S. economic activity. That has some economists predicting a “double dip” recession. If that happens, even the best-or most politically correct-commercials may not be enough to bring shoppers into Wal-Mart stores.
