Culture Clash

Potential bidders for the now open Wal-Mart account, take notes.

I know a bit about Northwest Arkansas, having spent a decade in neighboring Southwest Missouri. Julie Roehm must've considered Bentonville pure hell, the ultimate flyover country. A self-described "agent of change" and what many call "a rising star," Roehm brought her big city attitude and ideas to what is rightly considered the most backward part of the country. And they are proud of that backwardness. Nevermind that Sam Walton is dead, Wal-Mart people are still part of the surrounding culture. There is a Norman Rockwell streak that runs deep in the area. It is a place of barely concealed racism (they're learning, slowly), a place suspicious of outsiders and a place EXTREMELY resistant to change. Northwest Arkansas is a place and a people that look down on big city types and high-rolling con artists, just as big city types look down on small-town Arkansas. The good people of Bentonville thought they smelled a carpetbagging bullshit artist and got rid of her. Simple. End of story.

So when you're down in the Ozarks trying to grab a piece of that $600 million with your best dog and pony show, check your attitude at the door. And leave your sexy, politically correct campaign ideas back in the Big City. Wal-Mart is never going to be hip, sexy or viral. The winner of this account will take Wal-Mart back to the humble roots of Sam Walton and appeal to Wal-Mart's base, which Roehm helped alienate. That base is Bentonville, Norman Rockwell, Low Prices and Traditional Values. I know you hate that phrase, "traditional values." Tough. Learn it.