Wal-Mart becoming a competitor to MySpace?

This was a good one after reading about it -- Wal-Mart's new MySpace-ish website for the totally uncool teenager at its "School Your Way" website -- and its just about as far-fetched and kitschy as I have seen in some time. What are they trying to do here -- re-invent the wheel in the worst possible way? This is most likely a marketing experiment, but you never know how things like this will turn out -- perhaps everyone will migrate from MySpace over to Wal-Mart. Not.

Teenagers and entry-college people are generally the most faddish and entranced by fashion and trends, and it is hard to say if this marketing demographic will gravitate towards Wal-Mart as a fashionable trendsetter. Wal-Mart vs. Abercrombie? That's a rather odd comparison to visualize, yet that is exactly what Wal-Mart is trying to accomplish here from my perspective. The ad agency that created the campaign, GSD&M of Austin, Texas, must have some interesting research to back up up what they created.

With so many limitations and disclaimers on what visitors can do at the Wal-Mart "School Your Way" website -- no email interchange and a laundry list of what you "can't do" -- will this marketing junket even take off from the launch pad? With this stab at creating a semi-edgy slant of content to appeal to a certain purchasing set, some seem unimpressed by the display. Amy Kandel, 14, of Columbus, Ohio -- "Some of the kids looked like they were trying to be supercool, but they weren't at all, and they were just being kind of weird," and "Are these real kids?" Pete Hughes, 18, said this: "It just seemed kind of corny to me."