Got crabs? Walmart does, and they are not from "Deadliest Catch"

What! Walmart is at is again? Poor PR people, as I heard someone say the other day they must really hate life. This time what started as a brilliant marketing strategy went terribly wrong.

Riding on the success of Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch", a seafood distributor came up with the idea to market King crab sold exclusively at Walmart as being from one of the boats on the show. The only boat to say yes? The Northwestern.

Only catch, this catch is not from the Northwestern. check out the box.



Pretty blatantly trying to give the perception that this is Northwestern crab. There is a picture of the boat and even captain Sig's signature. But now check out the back of the box.




There are so many things that are
wrong with this. Let me try to make a list...

1. Walmart tries to be all-American, we support the heart of America, the working class, and then they undermine that very working class by supporting unregulated Russian crabbing.

2. It's just stupid. Yes, good idea to use the success of the show as a marketing tool. But, who was the person that thought American's were so stupid that no one would notice the product of Russia label on the box? That is just insulting, and poor strategic planning.

3. The Northwestern issued a statement, and as most damage control goes, it fails to include any of the bad stuff. Read it here at the Vario Creative blog.

4. In response to the statement. Let me just say, as someone with insiders in Dutch Harbor, the rest of the crabbing industry is NOT excited about this move by the Northwestern. If it was such a great and noble idea, as the Northwestern tries to claim, why did the other captains on "Deadliest Catch" repeatedly turn down these same promotional offers?

5. It is a classic example of greed trumping thought. Because if you do any thinking about this issue, you realize there are profound environmental, economic and social ramifications.

6. I can't list all of the environmental, economic and social issues here. And, some others have already done a good job of summing them up. Check out Alaska Report for more of an idea about the effect Russian crab poaching has on the American market.

Also for a little more balanced coverage of the issue (blogs and statements tend to be a little biased, in case you didn't know) check out this Seattle Times article.