By changing its policies, not defending them, Wal-Mart’s image went from demon to darling

Around the 2004 presidential election, Wal-Mart’s corporate communications department commissioned a reputation survey and found that Wal-Mart in just a short time had gone from corporate darling to demon, according to Ann Zimmerman in The Wall Street Journal . “The board gave then Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott distinct marching orders: Fix it,” she wrote. The company hired Edelman to help burnish its reputation, but the efforts were “ham-handed.” What really brought abo…