Katrina brings out Wal-MartAEs inner good guy; Rapid response serves public, buffs corporate-citizen image.(Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Hurricane Katrina 2005)

Advertising Age, September, 2005 by Neff, Jack

Byline: JACK NEFF

Millions in corporate-image advertising in the past year failed to do much to help Wal-Mart's reputation, shredded by disappointing business results, news stories about its lowest-paid workers getting Medicaid and food stamps and charges of embezzlement against its multimillionaire former No. 2 executive. But now, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart is getting the kind of advertising no marketer can buy.

As local, state and federal officials looked flummoxed by the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, Wal-Mart had 45 truckloads of relief supplies ready to ship before Katrina made landfall. In a tearful interview on NBC's "Meet the Press'' on Sept. 4, the president of Louisiana's Jefferson Parish said: "If the American...

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