Walmart in Adland vs. Walmart for Real

Have you seen the Walmart advertising that’s been running the past year or so to rebrand the retailer and make people think more positively about the store?

The ads feature well-groomed families enjoying life thanks to the money they’ve saved at their favorite shopping place. One spot shows a happy family taking a vacation. Another features a mom helping her son move into his college dorm. They’re pictures of upper-middle-class America.  And they’re intended to improve our notion of who actually shops at Walmart.

The spots are heart-warming.

The print is pretty endearing, too.

And then there’s the website. The website that takes all that expensive perception-changing messaging and changes it back again. It’s called People of Walmart. And its sole purpose is to make fun of Walmart shoppers. You won’t find the perfect mom and her perfect son on the site. You won’t find The World’s Greatest Dad with the kids on the beach, either.

What you’ll see is hundreds of pictures of shoppers that Walmart is telling you don’t shop there.

The site, as you might have guessed, wasn’t created by the retailer. It was created by some bloggers looking to have a little fun. And, to say it’s a hit would be an understatement. Already, People of Walmart has 214,000 Facebook fans. It has 26,000 followers on Twitter. And it gets submission pictures from people all over the country.

But, if you think about it, this blog is doing more than entertaining the masses, it’s building a brand.  It’s reinforcing brand perceptions. And, much to Walmart’s chagrin,  the content is completely out of their control.

It’s no secret that as technology grows so does the voice of the consumer. And People of Walmart takes it to a whole new level.  Every day, they are giving their audience new validation of the Walmart experience. It’s as if they are putting out a new “ad” for the company hourly. And their message is one that millions of dollars of advertising can’t undo.

So what does this tell us? Your product is what your product is. And if your advertising tries to pretend it’s something else, consumers will call you on it. In a mighty big way.