Adden-dumb to Wal-Mart post...

The family of a worker trampled to death in a "Black Friday" crush of bargain hunters at a New York Wal-Mart store filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Wednesday, claiming store ads offering deep discounts "created an atmosphere of competition and anxiety" that led to "crowd craze."

In simple terms, the advertising made people do it.

Please.

As many of you know, by day, I own and run a small, full-service advertising agency based in Toronto. While I do believe strongly in the power of the written and spoken word, I am amazed that some lawyer saw fit to pursue this based upon the above premise. But wait. It is the US after all, perhaps the most litigious nation in the world. A lawyer or law firm took this case on a contingency basis – if successful, they will receive a percentage of the award and then goes about their normal business, listening to police scanners and chasing proverbial ambulances.

The lawsuit claims that besides failing to provide adequate security on Friday, November 28 for a pre-dawn crowd estimated at 2,000, Wal-Mart "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent."

Say what?

“Guns don’t kill people… people kill people.” Here’s a quote from the Urban Dictionary… "Listen, Buck, when the gun-control crazies protest the concealed carry legislation, all you got to say is 'guns don't kill people, people kill people'. I mean, it's just that simple. After all, when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns, right?"

I digress.

Jdimytai Damour, 34, was 6-foot-5 and weighed in at around 270 pounds. He had been hired by an employment agency as a temporary worker at the Wal-Mart store and had been on the job a week when he died. Damour died of asphyxiation after being crushed by the crowd, which broke down the electronic doors in frantic pursuit of bargains. At least four other people were treated at hospitals, including a woman who was eight months pregnant. Interesting sidebar, here; Damour was as big as an NFL lineman. He was placed at the entrance of the store to assist with crowd control. Profiling?

I continue to digress.

Not wanting to leave out anyone lest they be offended, this action, in addition to the retailer, also named the realty company that manages the property and a security company hired to patrol the property, as defendants.

"Those hundreds of people who did make their way into the store, literally had to step over or around him or unfortunately on him to get into the Wal-Mart store," Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said this week. "Police are reviewing store video to identify possible suspects in Damour's death, but Mulvey conceded that criminal charges are unlikely.

So let’s be clear. No-one rolled up a flyer or newspaper and clubbed Damour with it. No one threw a barrage of mp3 files containing radio spots. No-one threw video tapes of 30-second commercials at him.

I am not for one moment absolving Wal-Mart of any blame or responsibility here. By all accounts, in this store at this location, security and security measures were perhaps not what they might have been. However, step back for a moment and ask yourself this; how many Wal-Mart stores are there in the United States? The answer, as of August 31, 2008 is 4,227. It would be a reasonably safe assumption that the vast majority of those stores participated in Black Friday sales. Across the nation, the air waves would have been crackling for days with advertising, urging consumers to part with their hard-earned dollars. Spend, spend, spend. At how many Wal-Mart stores was someone killed on that very day? One.

Advertising did NOT kill this unfortunate individual.

He was killed by a frenzied crowd of bargain hunters on a mission – to purchase something, anything at a ridiculously low price – because they could.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

The defense rests.