Image consciousness
An article in the New York Times the other day describes an interesting scene:
Inside a stuffy, windowless room here, veterans of the 2004 Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns sit, stand and pace around six plastic folding tables. Open containers of pistachio nuts and tropical trail mix compete for space with laptops and BlackBerries. CNN flickers on a television in the corner.
The phone rings, and a 20-something woman answers. "Turn on Fox," she yells, running up to the TV with a notepad. "This could be important."
While this may sound like the "war room" of a political campaign, it is actually the "war room" of Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Arkansas. Utilizing former political image specialists from both the Reagan and Clinton administrations (how bipartisan!), Wal-Mart is attempting to shore up its image in the face of continued pressure and bad press fostered by activist groups decrying the retail behemoth's labor, environmental and community impact record.
Here's an idea for politicians and Wal-Mart: instead of spending so much time on your image, focus on the problem itself. Perhaps Wal-Mart, with all of the money it's spending on these "image consultants," could figure out how to actually address its labor issues or the effects its stores have on communities. Of course, that would require a confession of sorts, an admission of wrongdoing. Maybe it is easier just to make people think that you're doing things better than you're actually doing them.