Ed on Wal-Mart Commercial
Not sure if this has been posted yet but has anyone seen the new Wal-mart commercial playing Ed from Into The World. I was speechless! He must not own the rights to the soundtrack? Not sure he would agree for his song to be used for the catalyst of our economical decline that is Wal-Mart?
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Just a naive aussie inquiring. Cheers
They are known for destroying downtown areas of smaller towns and treating their employees poorly (no health care, cutting hours so they dont have to provide it, etc.). Typical greedy behavior (I'm not opposed to Capitalism but choosing not to shop there is where smart people can change their ways). They develop enormous buildings on wetlands. They censor certain artists. The list goes on.
Ah Ha. Thanks for the answer Speakers
1. They should also be known as the store with the lowest prices in town, and they offer health care, and the insurance through them is better than at any other job you can find. Not that it makes it right, but every company that offers healthcare has "cut hours".
2. True, there doesnt need to be so many of them.
3. They don't censor anybody, its up to the artist. I have bought virtually every PJ album from there, several boots included, and not even a "fuck" has been touched.
They have a right to sell or not sell what they want. I think its pretty sweet that they have censored versions. It's mostly rap and most of that shit needs censored anyway.
I thought the world...Turns out the world thought me
Exactly. Wal-Mart is bad, but protecting those who sing about doing drugs, killing cops, and bangin' ho's is a priority.
Ha. 1. It isn't true that all companies that offer health care cut hours. They are known for only offering people 33 1/2 hours a week so they remain below the minimum and are thus not required to provide benefits by law. Look at Costco as a business model. They offer many more benefits and pay wages that could provide a salary above the poverty level while their profits remain high.
2. Luckily communities have seen the damage that Wal-Mart does and some are stopping them from building new stores.
3. Yeah, Wal-Mart does have the right to sell whatever they want but censorship in that arena does not line up with most normal and free-thinking people...I was just trying to explain to our Aussie friend why most people find this store wicked and are appalled to find Eddie Vedder associated with it.
Wal Mart got on top and provides low prices because they bully small manufacturers. They hold meetings with a rep from three or four companies at the same time and demand a certain price saying the one that can meet this unreal expectation is the only one who can sell to them, or they just refuse to carry their lines effectively driving them out of business because of their market share in rural/suburban areas makes competition impossible. I'm sure their charitable and do things well, but at the end of the day capitalism is a dirty game. Anyone on top of the money chain haven't gotten there totally ethically, unless of course they can hit a baseball 400 feet.
1. Actually anybody that works there long enough can get insurance. Most Wal Mart employees now start at close to 10 bucks an hour. Not bad for basically knowin your manners.
2. Damage?
3. Most of the music they censor is trash anyway. If you ask me people go after the wrong people when it comes to censoring. The artist is just sellin out, b/c they know they will sell tons of copies there.
Agreed.
About Wallmart you also have to add...
They've put all other hometown businesses out of commission by being the only store in town.
They employ entire towns, with low wages, and no one can move up in the company or move out of town due to lack of funds.
They don't pay overtime.
Their stores are organized HORRIBLY.
The sell guns.
They build gigantic box buildings and then leave them standing empty when they move on to bigger and better buildings and polluting sites without providing
They censor, they censor, they censor.
Ohhhhhhhhhh Jimmy, there you go again talking about things that aren't true.
Wal-Mart and Health Care
Wal-Mart's Health Care Plan Fails to Cover Over 775,000 Employees
* Wal-Mart reported in January 2006 that its health insurance only covers 43% of their employees. Wal-Mart has approximately 1.39 million US employees. [http://www.walmartfacts.com/docs/1625_jan2006healthcarebackgrounders_576890240.pdf]
Wal-Mart's Health Insurance Falls Far Short of Other Large Companies
* On average for 2005, large companies (200 or more workers) cover approximately 66% of their employees. If Wal-Mart was to reach the average coverage rate, Wal-Mart should be covering an additional 318,000 employees [Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005 and http://www.walmartfacts.com/docs/1625_jan2006healthcarebackgrounders_576890240.pdf].
Wal-Mart's Health Care Eligibility is Restrictive
* Part-timers—anybody below 34 hours a week — must wait 1 year before they can enroll. Moreover, spouses of part-time employees are ineligible for family health care coverage for 2006. [Wal-Mart Stores, "My Benefits, New Peak Time Benefits Making a Difference For You," 2006]
* Full-time hourly employees must wait 180 days (approximately 6 months) before being able to enroll in Wal-Mart's health insurance plan. Managers have no waiting period. [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide]
* Nationally, the average wait time for new employees to become eligible is 1.7 months. For the retail industry it is 3.0 months. [Kaiser Family Foundation & Health Research and Educational Trust, 2005]
All of Wal-Mart's Health Plans Are Too Costly for Its Workers to Use
* Since the average full-time Wal-Mart employee earned $17,114 in 2005, he or she would have to spend between 7 and 25 percent of his or her income just to cover the premiums and medical deductibles, if electing for single coverage. [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide and UFCW analysis]
* The average full-time employee electing for family coverage would have to spend between 22 and 40 percent of his or her income just to cover the premiums and medical deductibles. These costs do not include other health-related expenses such as medical co-pays, prescription coverage, emergency room deductibles, and ambulance deductibles. [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide and UFCW Analysis].
* Wal-Mart trumps the affordability of its new health care plan. According to Wal-Mart, "In January [2006], ...Coverage will be available for as little as $22 per month for individuals" [www.walmartfacts.com]
* What Wal-Mart's website leaves out: Coverage is affordable, but using it will bankrupt many employees. Wal-Mart's most affordable plan for 2006 includes a $1,000 deductible for single coverage and a $3,000 deductible for family coverage ($1,000 deductible per person covered up to $3,000). [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide]
Wal-Mart Admits Public Health Care is a "Better Value"
* President and CEO Lee Scott said in 2005, "In some of our states, the public program may actually be a better value - with relatively high income limits to qualify, and low premiums." [Transcript Lee Scott Speech 4/5/05]
Wal-Mart's Health Care is Getting Costlier
* Between 2000-2005, the cost of premiums rose 169 percent for single coverage and 117 percent for family coverage. [UFCW analysis of annual Wal-Mart Associate Guides].
* In comparison, premiums for family coverage in the U.S. have increased only by 59%, from 2000-2005. [Employer Health Benefits: 2004 Annual Survey, Kaiser Family Foundation & Health Research and Educational Trust, 2004] Wal-Mart Employees Pay More for Health Care Costs
* In 2004, Wal-Mart employees, in total, paid approximately 41% of the plan costs [Wal-Mart IRS 5500 Filings, 2005].
* Nationally for 2004 on average employees paid for only 16% of single coverage costs and 28% of family coverage costs [Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005].
Wal-Mart Covers Less of the Health Care Costs Compared to Its Competitors
* In a state analysis, the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services found that in 2003, Wal-Mart covered only 52% of total health care premium costs compared to K-Mart which covered 66%, Target which covered 68%, and Sears which covered 80% ["Employers Who Have 50 or More Employees Using Public Health Assistance," Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, 2/2005]
They pay overtime, they just don't allow it, very often. It's a federal law that isn't hard to enforce on them.
Who cares that they sell guns. People can use them for things other than killing people, and I would rather WalMart sell guns than some little backwoods shops.
Their stores are too big for old people, but how else should they lay out the stores?
Oooops Jim, you did it again. I'll leave you alone now, although listening to somebody try and defend wal-mart is actually pretty amusing. I just thought all of this was common knowledge. Guess not...
Wal-Mart forces employees to work off-the-clock
* Wal-Mart's 2006 Annual Report reported that the company faced 57 wage and hour lawsuits. Major lawsuits have either been won or are working their way through the legal process in states such as California, Indiana, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. [Wal-Mart Annual Report 2006]
* In December 2005, a California court ordered Wal-Mart to pay $172 million in damages for failing to provide meal breaks to nearly 116,000 hourly workers as required under state law. Wal-Mart appealed the case. [The New York Times, December 23, 2005]
* A Pennsylvania court, also in December 2005, approved a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. by employees in Pennsylvania who say the company pressured them to work off the clock. The class could grow to include nearly 150,000 current or former employees. [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 12, 2006 ]
* In Pennsylvania, the lead plaintiff alleges she worked through breaks and after quitting time — eight to 12 unpaid hours a month, on average — to meet Wal-Mart's work demands. "One of Wal-Mart's undisclosed secrets for its profitability is its creation and implementation of a system that encourages off-the-clock work for its hourly employees," Dolores Hummel, who worked at a Sam's Club in Reading from 1992-2002, charged in her suit. [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 12, 2006 ]
Wal-Mart executives did not act on warnings they were violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
* Wal-Mart has known for years of a massive companywide problem of fair labor standards violations but did not take sufficient steps to address the problem. An internal Wal-Mart audit of one week of time records in 2000 from 25,000 employees had alerted Wal-Mart officials to potential violations. The audit found 60,767 missed breaks and 15,705 lost meal times. It also alerted Wal-Mart executives to 1,371 instances of minors working too late, during school hours, or for too many hours in a day. [Steven Greenhouse, "Suits Say Wal-Mart Forces Workers to Toil Off the Clock," New York Times, A1, 6/25/02]
* In March 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle allegations that it had failed to pay overtime to janitors, many of whom worked seven nights a week. [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 11/7/05, Forbes, 10/10/05]
I disagree with what a lot of people say, but I will defend to the death their right to say it.
Most WalMart stores are so afraid of lawsuits its ridiculous. There are a few stores that got caught doin bad shit, so what. IMO little businesses do just as much bad shit as Wally World, they just do it on a tiny scale.
Free speech is a must, but isnt there a difference between free speech, and not wantin your kids hearin that stuff and growin up cussin like sailors. Nothin' is trashier lookin than a little kid cussin.
And really wouldn't not allowing censoring, be taking Walmarts right to sell what they want.
And how bout the artist. I think if an artist is willing to edit their material, fans should have no gripes. Most of the time it effects the final product, but alotta stuff is still fine with the editing(Save You). Unedited is the way to got, but I don't mind edited, esp if there is real interuption in the music
When I grew up my parents tried to keep me from watching R movies and listening to rap and metal. When I heard bad words they informed me (repeatedly) that certain language in certain situations is highly inappropriate and punished me when I crossed the line.
I'm not sure when exactly parents became so lazy but that is a far bigger source of societal decline than Jay-Z saying the word "fuck."
So for every community that's happy to get a new Walmart store with some jobs and a few charitable donations to their local groups, there other communities all over the country laying off workers and sending their jobs overseas. There's good examples in the article.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html
power to the peaceful
Is it an ad for the Into the Wild CD being sold there or is it one of the tracks being used to simply promote the store?
If it's the first, who gives a rat's ass if Walmart is selling it and promoting it? Don't they have the right to? I mean, Ed did make and produce it through a record label that sells CDs to Walmart...
You can get all of PJ's albums there...how is this any different?
It is to promote the store, no mention of the movie or CD. It shows various clips of families traveling, smiling happy people and then they all eventually go to Wal-Mart.
By the way people, my original point wasn't to debate Wal-Mart, I was simply asking if anyone else saw it & what they thought about hearing 1 of Ed's new songs promoting something he has been vocullay opposed to in the past, thats all folks. Not trying to start a national debate, thats another post. Thank you.
Wait, so its like a commercial with a song of Eds as the soundtrack? Is there someone that can actually confirm this? I need to see this for myself....
It's not Ed. I've heard it. It's actually the band the White Buffalo. You can read about it here.
http://boards.thewhitebuffalo.com/ShowPost.aspx?ThreadId=559
Whew, thank God, I was about cry
I don't know. But I saw the commercial the other day. My sister asked me if that was Ed singing & I told her she was nuts; that it sounded nothing like him. Apparently she wasn't alone cuz there's the threads in the Pit & if you do a simple google search you'll see other people have mistaken them for Ed too. But there's always someone to clear Ed's name & explain that it is in fact the White Buffalo. You can hear the same song on the White Buffalo official site.
http://walmart.feedroom.com/?fr_story=0a688bb361781228e3f7a10885ad2cb8dc0d5295