Fired marketing exec accuses Wal-Mart of smear campaign

After Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (NYSE: WMT) very public marketing scandal from late last year, one of the fired executives, Julie Roehm is now stating that the world's largest retailer is engaging in a "smear campaign." Additionally, Roehm is still claiming that the retailer had no valid reason to dismiss her and a subordinate who worked for her.

So, is this fight between Wal-Mart and Roehm ever going to end? Not for the foreseeable future most likely, even as Wal-Mart would like to put this episode behind it and return to trying to re-create some kind of positive image for the company (it's not happening, though).

Roehm said: "Wal-Mart is insinuating things about my personal life and pretending I violated some code of ethics with advertisers, all to distract from the reality that it didn't want my form of progressive marketing." Did Roehm's brash style of trying to get consumers to recognize Wal-Mart again in the face of inconsistent sales really get her fired? Did Wal-Mart make up this entire episode about an inappropriate affair between Roehm and Sean Womack, one of her subordinates?

If Roehm was really doing progressive (read: salty and sultry) things to shake up Wal-Mart's image, it seems odd that the retailer would concoct such a scheme to get rid of her instead of doing things differently. Who do you believe?