Asda Launches Green Marketing Campaign

Alex

While I am pleased you have picked up on the fact that ASDA is using a film to explain their policies on sustainability, I wonder whether you have watched it? The programme broadcast last night (May 6th) and is broadcast daily for three weeks.

The objective was to use a programme to deliver direct, unmediated communications. To show an interested concerned audience exactly what ASDA does in the UK as a business that is aware of its corporate social responsibilities. The programme is aimed to engage an interested audience, willing to watch it and to direct them to give their feedback online and via a call centre.

Its unlikely that even this innovative measure will win over the cynical or sceptical who have a set view on the company. But in a competitive market, where consumers are seeking re-assurance that retailers are taking action on waste and the environment, this is very bold move and should be applauded.

The UK TV market is regulated and normal broadcast controls separate editorial from advertising and sponsorship. The broadcaster in this case, Information TV, is licenced to allow this form of promotional programmes.

Let’s see if the programme has an impact on what viewers think about ASDA and how it influences their behaviours.

Best regards

Bill Gash

Hillary and Bill: two slices, burnt and bitter!

“Clinton Toast”

How sweet it is!

Its unlikely that even this innovative measure will win over the cynical or skeptical who have a set view on the company.

Gee, why would anyone be “cynical or skeptical” about Wal-Mart or ASDA, it’s UK arm?

“promotional programmes” = propaganda

Token environmental platitudes so boastfully touted (by Wal-Mart or ASDA) won’t cut it. ~ Advertising Age

textron

“Clinton Toast”

Hey, Screwed, do you see any parallels between Hillary and Eight Belles?

After giving a valiant effort and finishing second to Big Brown in the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby, filly Eight Belles should have been jogging back in front of the grandstand and receiving the applause of thousands.

Instead, she was receiving a needle in turn two, laying on Churchill Downs’ famed dirt with fractures in both front legs, the bones protruding through the skin. In less than a minute, she was dead, having been humanely euthanized.

I’m not for a moment suggesting Hillary should be put down!

“do you see any parallels between Hillary and Eight Belles?”

Now that you mention it Ken.... It’s almost uncanny!

I think Hillary should pack her bags for good and head back to New York.  Bill won’t let her though.  He was looking forward to answering the phone when it rings at 3 A.M. in the White House.

Guys, in all fairness they each gave the other competition a “run for the money"-before the filly and the nag each gave out on the home stretch.

Now that its over, will Bill share his cigar with Hillary, This time?

As They Say in TV Land, Commander...

Stay Tuned! We haven’t heard the last from the Clintons.

Bill: “You know its true, that I never inhaled.”

Reporter: “How’s that Mr. President?”

Bill: “Every time to this very day when Hillary hands me the bong, that damn thing is empty!”

When asked to compare her ‘affair’ with Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinski’s, Jennifer Flowers said: “Close, but no cigar!”

‘’Living near a Wal-Mart would cheapen the neighborhood.’’ ~ Carl Lanke

Didn’t she say “NO STAIN EITHER” ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,GGAG

Wal-Mart was whistleblower in OFT’s supermarket investigation
By James Hall, Telegraph
May 5th, 2008
Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, was the whistleblower behind the Office of Fair Trading’s current probe into alleged price fixing of food and toiletries, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The investigation has embroiled some of the world’s largest consumer goods manufacturers such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser, as well as UK retail giants, including Tesco and J Sainsbury.

In blowing the whistle, Wal-Mart, which owns the Asda chain, has guaranteed itself immunity from a fine should the OFT discover any cartel activity. Any company found guilty could be fined up to 10 per cent of its annual worldwide sales, which in Wal-Mart’s case would be $37bn (£18.7bn).

The move is likely to make the US retailer deeply unpopular with the companies involved, many of whom are its largest suppliers.

Last weekend this newspaper revealed that around 100 OFT officials and lawyers raided the offices of the country’s biggest supermarkets ten days ago over allegations of price-fixing involving dozens of popular household brands, such as PG Tips, Aquafresh toothpaste and Andrex toilet roll. Consumer goods companies in the UK and the US were also visited or asked to provide pricing information.

It is understood that following an earlier OFT investigation into price-fixing of dairy products, which resulted in some supermarkets and dairies paying fines of £116m, senior Wal-Mart and Asda executives made the decision to go to the OFT with new information.

All the companies involved in the probe have strenuously denied that they are involved in any cartel activity, and Asda’s decision to tip off the OFT does not mean that price-fixing has necessarily occurred. The OFT has refused to comment on the investigation.

Legal experts believe it will be at least two years until the OFT publishes any findings.

“Things will go quiet and it could drag on for two years. If the OFT gets a Statement of Objections out within a year I will be amazed,” said one executive.

Other senior supermarket executives have dismissed the raids as a “fishing expedition”. However, under its remit, the OFT needs to have a so-called evidential threshold before it can launch a raid, meaning that it must have good reason.

Last week the Competition Commission, the anti-trust watchdog, completed a separate two-year investigation into the supermarket sector. The commission gave the sector a largely clean bill of health, although it said that it had uncovered emails that “might raise issues of co-ordination” between supermarkets and suppliers.

Peter Freeman, chairman of the Competition Commission, said that the watchdog had passed on information to the OFT as part of the latter’s new investigation.

He added that there was no contradiction between the commission finding the sector largely competitive and the OFT examining alleged price-fixing.

So according to the timeline,after ASDA blew the whistle ,destined to make it deeply unpopular in the U.K.,it simultaneously begins to runs a daily 30 minute PR “propagreenda” piece on the telly?

The investigation has embroiled some of the world’s largest consumer goods manufacturers such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser, as well as UK retail giants, including Tesco and J Sainsbury.

Hey, Proctor & Gamble! Are you a major brand or a Bentonville buttboy?

“Bentonville buttboy”

That one’s definitely going into my “Wal-Mart Lexicon, Ken!