• August 17, 2007

Anti-Wal-Mart group WakeUpWalMart has launched a campaign against the big box store. The effort, "Send Wal-Mart Back to School," says the company engages in child labor, gender discrimination, poverty-level wages and shifting health care costs onto taxpayers.

The group has a new ad, "Schools, Not Wal-Mart"--a 30-second spot that began airing in 26 markets. The ad opens with a chalkboard and colorful, hand-drawn images of a school, a taxpayer, and a Wal-Mart store. The taxpayer's dollars steadily inflate the Wal-Mart store while the school shrinks smaller and smaller, dramatically illustrating that "Every tax dollar that comes out of your pocket to subsidize a company with billions in profits ... is a dollar that isn't being spent to build better schools, hire more teachers and help children learn."

The group says it is also holding protests at Wal-Mart stores in 24 states. At the protests, local community leaders, activists, teachers, and students, with blue T-shirts and black chalkboard-style banners, are inviting more than 100,000 citizens and consumers to sign the "Send Wal-Mart Back to School" pledge. This pledge is a promise that he/she will not buy school supplies at Wal-Mart this year unless Wal-Mart promises to change for the better.

--Karl Greenberg