A tail of sex, gifts, and culture clashes leads to another fallen star
Dec/10/06 07:42 | The agency side
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Normally I use this website to write or post articles directly related to pharmaceutical industry but the story coming out of Bentonville, Wal*Mart's HQ's, is too good to pass up. It's a story of an alleged sexual affair, of accepting gifts from agencies, but more importantly it's a story of a self-imposed marketing star who wanted to continue to shine in a culture where there are no stars.



Julie Roehm was hired by Wal*Mart with a lot of fanfare from the press. She was the marketing executive who was responsible for such racy ads as the "lingerie bowl". She is the type of person who covets the spotlight and wants to be in charge of everything. It was surprising therefor for Wal*Mart to recruit her for a Senior VP's position.

After arriving at Wal-Mart, Ms. Roehm referred to herself as a “change agent,” and set about turning the company’s annual shareholder meeting — a traditionally PowerPoint and numbers-heavy affair — into a three-hour musical. Ms. Roehm, in an interview, said she believed that her job at Wal-Mart was to buck convention. “I had to assume they felt I brought the right skill set in this quest for transformation". The meeting raised the eyebrows of several Wal*Mart executives who questioned her judgement of conducting a shareholders meeting in this fashion.

Then several weeks ago, Ms. Roehm courted controversy again when she oversaw production of a holiday TV ad, known inside the company as “Sexy,” that portrayed a husband and wife discussing racy lingerie in front of their extended family. The ad drew customer complaints and was immediately taken off the air, a person involved in the matter said. Anyone who knows Wal*Mart's positioning knows that an ad is way off base for Wal*Mart's core audience and never should have been developed.


Ms. Roehm then put Wal*Mart's $580 million advertising account up for review. In the process of meeting with agencies she was seen riding with agency people in their Bentley's and high end BMW's. She also accepted an invitation to one of the most expensive restaurants in New York, Nobu, in which generous portions of Kobe beef and lobster were served. Now some people might say "so what's the big deal?" Well this is as opposite of Wal*Mart culture as you can get. Those of us who have called on Wal*mart, including this author, know that you are not even allowed to buy soft drinks for employees. Taking ANY Wal*Mart person to dinner is strictly forbidden.


In addition to these mistakes by Ms Roehm there is an allegation that she had an affair with a subordinate of hers who accompanied her on the agency review trips. Ms Roehm, who is married, denies the affair.


So what really happened here? Well to me it's a simple case of really bad judgement as well as trying to revolutionize a culture that was resistant to change. Change is evolutionary not revolutionary and Ms Roehm as a seasoned executive should have seen this could not see this. A good executive has to learn about he company he, or she, works for before implementing change. A good executive does not continually desire the spotlight in a culture where there are no stars. Ms Roehm wanted to excel but more importantly she wanted to continue to be in control. As one executive said "Julie is the type of person who sucks all the life out of a room. When she enters a meeting, it's her meeting and nobody had better try and get control away from her."


There is a lot to learn here for everyone. Talent alone is not a guarantee of success in any industry. I am sure Ms Roehm will find a new position with some company but her star is now tarnished and it's going to be interesting to see what organization might want to take a chance on someone who is "all about me".
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