Tux of Borg Posted January 7, 2006 Posted January 7, 2006 Wal-Mart Web Site Makes Racial ConnectionsDVD Shoppers Get Offensive Referrals By Ylan Q. Mui Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 6, 2006; D01 Wal-Mart apologized yesterday after its retail Web site directed potential buyers of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Planet of the Apes" DVDs to also consider purchasing DVDs with African American themes. The world's largest retailer said in a statement that it was "heartsick" over the racially offensive grouping and that the site was linking "seemingly random combinations of titles." "It's just simply not working correctly," said Mona Williams, vice president of corporate communications for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The company said it was alerted to the problem early yesterday afternoon after word began spreading among bloggers. When visitors to Walmart.com requested "Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series" on DVD, four other movies were recommended under the heading "Similar Items." Those films included "Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream/Assassination of MLK" and "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson." Williams said similar titles were called up when the DVD of the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was requested. There were three such combinations involving those two movies and African Americans films, she said. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said in a written statement that it removed the combinations at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. By last evening, "Planet of the Apes" was linked to DVDs of the fifth season of the CBS comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond" and the 10th season of the NBC hit "Friends." The company said it planned to shut down its entire cross-selling system overnight. Like most other major retail sites, including Amazon.com, Wal-Mart's site directs users searching for movies to other titles that might interest them; Wal-Mart calls the process "mapping." Wal-Mart said last night that the system was malfunctioning but did not explain why or how. Williams said the company has "absolutely no evidence" that the problem was intentional. A company statement said that the site had also linked African American films to the movies "Home Alone" and "The Powerpuff Girls." Marty Hires, a spokesman, said the company is investigating. Williams said news of the problem was first posted on a blog. The company then learned about the offensive combinations when a reporter called to ask about it. The blog Firedoglake, run by Jane Hamsher in Oregon, posted news of the combination yesterday afternoon under the heading "So Wrong." The incident illustrated how quickly a firestorm can build on the Internet. Two minutes after the post appeared on Hamsher's blog, it was up on the Crooks and Liars site. Within hours, more than 100 comments were posted to that site, questioning such things as Wal-Mart's agenda and the technicalities of mapping. Wal-Mart has been in a public relations battle over the past year. In May, the company apologized for a newspaper advertisement in Arizona that equated a proposed state zoning ordinance with Nazi book-burning. Then came the Robert Greenwald documentary "The High Cost of Low Price," which criticized Wal-Mart's treatment of employees. The company fought back by hiring former political operatives to polish its image and has joined in founding a group called "Working Families for Wal-Mart" that helps promote positive stories. Yesterday, Wal-Mart repeatedly apologized for the offensive material on its Web site. "We are deeply sorry that this happened," it said in a written statement. "It's just simply not working correctly," My ass... somebody hardcoded that in.
Fezmid Posted January 7, 2006 Posted January 7, 2006 "It's just simply not working correctly," My ass... somebody hardcoded that in. 558424[/snapback] Actually, you're (most likely) incorrect. The searching software uses "semantic indexing," linking words together based on potential meaning. We've seen this sort of thing where I work since we have large databases full of information and also use a semantic indexing search application. You type in one thing, and get something completely unreleated (in your mind) to the original search. My theory would be that the index had some sort of book/movie/article linking Apes to African Americans through evolution or something similar. Nobody's going in and manually saying "This movie is like this movie, and this book is like this book." Cna you imagine how tedious that would be? And there's little chance that someone short circuited the search application - that'd be near impossible to do (especially without being noticed), and if someone DID do it, why wouldn't Walmart have fired the person on the spot and hung them out to dry? Walmart does a lot of stupid things, but I'm pretty sure this isn't one of them. In fact, the person is wrong -- the searching WAS working correctly, it just had bad linking inside the relevance matrix. CW
Fezmid Posted January 7, 2006 Posted January 7, 2006 Better Walmart article: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3371815?source=rss CW
MadBuffaloDisease Posted January 8, 2006 Posted January 8, 2006 Walmart also used to sell the "88" brand of clothing, that is a neo-Nazi corporation ("88" refers to "Heil Hitler" with "H" being the 8th letter of the alphabet).
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 8, 2006 Posted January 8, 2006 Walmart also used to sell the "88" brand of clothing, that is a neo-Nazi corporation ("88" refers to "Heil Hitler" with "H" being the 8th letter of the alphabet). 558612[/snapback] Isn't that just urban myth behind the story? Just like some people think that the ship on Snapple Iced Tea was a slave ship. They asked others and stuff like this was said: Church's Chicken has special additives in it to sterilize African-American males. The circle K on products is code for the KKK. It is amazing what people come up with! Totally... Outrageous!
/dev/null Posted January 8, 2006 Posted January 8, 2006 It is amazing what people come up with! Totally... Outrageous! 558725[/snapback] If its shiny enough, someone will pay attention
mcjeff215 Posted January 8, 2006 Posted January 8, 2006 Isn't that just urban myth behind the story? Just like some people think that the ship on Snapple Iced Tea was a slave ship. They asked others and stuff like this was said: Church's Chicken has special additives in it to sterilize African-American males. The circle K on products is code for the KKK. It is amazing what people come up with! Totally... Outrageous! 558725[/snapback] It means the product is Kosher, no? Big difference, methinks.
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 8, 2006 Posted January 8, 2006 It means the product is Kosher, no? Big difference, methinks. 558921[/snapback] Yes it does! I forgot to mention the real reason. A very BIG difference! You wonder how these myths get started!
Beerball Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 It means the product is Kosher, no? Big difference, methinks. 558921[/snapback] FYI, circle K is a convenience store in the western states. The logo is a K inside of a circle! Get what you're saying on the real thing though.
stuckincincy Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 Whither diversity and understanding? Don't we already buy All Things Chinese?
Puhonix Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 FYI, circle K is a convenience store in the western states. The logo is a K inside of a circle! Get what you're saying on the real thing though. 560112[/snapback] Not just the West, they'er all over Florida.
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 FYI, circle K is a convenience store in the western states. The logo is a K inside of a circle! Get what you're saying on the real thing though. 560112[/snapback] Doesn't the line go like this? "Something is amiss at the Circle K, Ted." For some reason I can't get that line out of my head when I see the symbol.
Just Jack Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 Doesn't the line go like this? "Something is amiss at the Circle K, Ted." For some reason I can't get that line out of my head when I see the symbol. 560431[/snapback] Ted: Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K. Other quotes....
GoodBye Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 Ted: Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K. Other quotes.... 560533[/snapback] That's funny cause I think of that line too when ever I pass by one.
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 Ted: Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K. Other quotes.... 560533[/snapback] I was close Jack! Thanx... Good thing we have the written word... The oral saga had a life of its own I imagine! My Email is Thamus (as in the Judgement of Thamus)... Go figure.
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