Wal-Mart Enters The Wide World of Facebook

Last week saw the debut of Wal-Mart’s latest gimmick to try to get young shoppers - the groovy and rad “Wal-Mart Roommate Style Match” Facebook group. Looks like someone just told Wal-Mart that kids these days hang out on the Interweb.

Now, Facebook users will get to figure out their “style” and learn how to decorate their dorm appropriately. After answering questions like “If your life were a movie genre, what would it be?” the group will tell you what kind of person you are (I guess teens who are still confused about their identity want help from a retail giant to figure it out). The concept is that then your roommate will do the same thing and behold! you will know how to decorate your room. Except of course that the “matching” it does with your roommate is a simple, Solomonic division of the room. Here’s what my imaginary dorm room looks like (I’m a “Brain-Stormer,” on the left, and my roommate is “The Mayor"):

Even though I’m all alone while my roommate has fun with his friends, it looks like I’m happy - and why not? In this cartoon, my room is three times the size of a real world dorm room.

Also, it’s a good thing me and my roommate are men: if we were women, we couldn’t become “The Mayor.” If my roommate answered all the questions the same way except for what his gender is, Wal-Mart would have told him he was not “The Mayor” but “Socialite”. Take that, women in public office!

Most of the members of the group seem like they joined just to discuss their opposition to the company’s practices. Messages on the group’s discussion board run from “Wal Mart is killing America! Save this beautiful country, don’t shop at Wal-Mart!” to the sarcastic “Small business was hurting our economy for too long! I only wish I could super-size the trade deficit along with my fries! No Job? De-valued dollar can’t cover my rising interest rates? At least I saved a nickel on a picture frame!”

The pictures that have been uploaded are also squarely on the anti-Wal-Mart side - pictures of protests outside stores, for example. Wal-Mart’s marketing department will no doubt find and erase these pictures soon, but until they do, it’s an ironic reminder that Wal-Mart still has a lot to learn about being cool - or as they might say, “Far out!”

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, August 13, 2007

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