What would you do if you were fired from your job as a top advertising executive at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) after a torrid love affair with a subordinate, and then read about the ensuing drama and steamy emails in The Wall Street Journal?

Head to reality television, of course! B-list reality shows have given disgraced former stars like Jose Canseco (The Surreal Life) another 15 minutes of fame, and Julie Roehm wants in on the act too: Fortune reports that Ms. Roehm will be a judge on Jingles, an upcoming CBS show where contestants compete to write jingles for TV commercials. I can't wait to see that one. What's next? Who Wants to be a Roadkill Collector? I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Jingles will last one season.

She's still living in Bentonville because she hasn't been able to sell her house.

I give some props to Ms. Roehm for capitalizing on her fame, but I think she has to be careful about not marginalizing herself by morphing into a d-list celebrity on the strength of her relationship with a coworker. But she's also running her own marketing consulting firm, so maybe she's keeping it balanced.

It's sort of like finding out that Britney Spears is moving into a convent -- You're happy that she's taking steps to get her life together, but you'll miss the salacious headlines.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and the ad executive who was too sexy for the retailer have agreed to drop their lawsuits against each other. Roehm was fired last year after the company accused her of using company resources to carry on an affair with a subordinate and accepting gifts from suppliers. Roehm sued for wrongful termination and, somehow, Irwin Jacobs also got dragged in when Roehm accused CEO Lee Scott of getting good deals on jewelry from the former raider.

Under the terms of the settlement, Roehm will drop her lawsuit against Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart will drop its suit and Roehm, and Peltz will drop his defamation suit against Roehm. Roehm says Wal-Mart did not give her any money.

It looks like this Wal-Mart soap opera is over. Now we can get back to focusing on the company's sagging stock price, lagging same-store sales, image problems, etc.

You may have noticed that Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has been struggling a bit of late. But not to worry, the company has a strategy to get things back on track. It is going to focus on low prices.

According to the Associated Press, Wal-Mart launched a new ad campaign on Wednesday, emphasizing how consumers can save money by shopping at the stores. This comes in the wake of the company's failed foray into fashion. The tag line for the campaign will be "Save Money. Live Better." I shudder to think how much an advertising firm was paid to come up with that one. If her private life is any indication, you have to think Julie Roehm could have come up with something edgier.

Stephen Quinn, Wal-Mart's chief marketing officer, said this in a statement: "The new advertising tells the same story we have told since day one, how we are working hard to save people money so they can live better."

But don't people already get that Wal-Mart can be a good way to save money? I mean, I would hope that people aren't shopping at the stores for the ambiance and customer service! The reason that Wal-Mart tried the whole Metro 7 line was that the "Always low prices. Always." story was no longer driving strong growth in the United States. The Metro 7 venture has failed, but that doesn't mean a new focus on Wal-Mart's one redeeming factor (even if it is a big one) will revive growth.

[photo ILoveMyPiccolo]

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) turns to late-night TV to try to boost its image, the Julie Roehm scandal continues to produce negative publicity, regardless of whether Ms. Roehm is telling the truth. A few days ago, Bloomberg reported that the company was facing a lot of pressure to reach a settlement with Roehm, and put an end to the rumors and innuendo.

Last month, Roehm called for the departure of CEO Lee Scott and others she accuses of violating the company's ethics policy. Some worry that a continuation of the battle with Ms. Roehm could lead to more damaging allegations which, regardless of their verity, could further harm the company's reputation.

In retrospect, there's almost no question that Wal-Mart should have settled the suit months ago, when Roehm was seeking approximately $1.5 million in salary and punitive damages. But now that the issue has been grabbing headlines for so long, a settlement could be seen as an admission of wrongdoing, and could generate even more negative publicity.

At this point, Wal-Mart is in a tough position. If Scott and others truly believe they're innocent of any wrongdoing, is it better to let the legal process run its course, regardless of the headlines generated in the interim? Would a settlement put an end to the negative publicity?

The issue really seems to hinge on what else Ms. Roehm has up her sleeve. If accusing Scott of buying a ring from a vendor was all she's got, then they may not want to settle. But if there's more to come in subsequent legal filings, a settlement is probably in the company's best interests.

The Julie Roehm scandal at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is getting petty to the point of being goofy. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that CEO Lee Scott recently purchased a diamond ring from the Aaron Group, a wholesale supplier of jewelry to Wal-Mart. The company didn't disclose the details of the purchase, but did say that Scott hadn't received any preferential pricing. A Wal-Mart spokesperson jumped to Scott's defense, saying that he is "subject to the same ethics policy as any other associate and has not violated either the spirit or the letter of Wal-Mart's ethical standards."

The Bentonville retailer has a very strict ethics policy prohibiting its employees from receiving anything free from suppliers. The only thing interesting about this is that the Aaron Group is a maker of "popular priced jewelry" so it would seem like an unusual place for Scott to buy jewelry. But who knows.

The bad news for Wal-Mart is that this is just more bad publicity, however inane it is. I'm sure that they're regretting not settling Roehm's lawsuit a long time ago.

Oh boy. Last year's Wal-Mart marketing department scandal is reaching a new fever pitch. And with no clear end in sight. That's right -- Julie Roehm is back (no, that's not a movie title), and I wonder if this PR spectacle will be quashed at this Friday's annual Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) shareholder's meeting.

The former Wal-Mart advertising executive, fired last year by the world's largest retailer, apparently is not going to go out quietly. As my colleague Peter Cohen examined here last week, Roehm has filed all sorts of charges against various Wal-Mart brass, including current CEO H. Lee Scott. I couldn't help but throw a few pennies into the well on this one.

Is it true in that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely? That is the phrase that came into my mind upon reading Roehm's latest list of gnarliness against some employees of her former employer. Allegations of gift taking, diamond purchasing, yacht discounts and other scandalous behaviors are being made public, whether true or not. I can't help but wonder. After all, as a top executive, Roehm was surely privy to some pretty juicy Wal-Mart dish. This is turning into a ridiculous spectacle that evokes images of the Thomas Coughlin mess from a year ago.

If Wal-Mart CEO Scott follows through and sues Roehm and her lawyer on a personal level, this could get even uglier. All of this while Wal-Mart scrambles to preserve a pleasant public face. Wal-Mart is not on the ropes at all, even with all the negative press and lower-than-expected financial results from recent months (along with substandard future projections). But the company needs to find a way to make itself more relevant outside its core customer (if that's possible) and take back the thunder it once had with the American public. Right now, the capitalistic nature of America is shining brightly, as there are companies competing quite well against the Bentonville behemoth, and all this "he said, she said" nonsense is going to help prevent the retailer from focusing on, umm, retail.

Wall-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) Julie Roehm scandal just won't seem to go away. Every time it finally seems like it's out of the headlines, it comes roaring back in an even more scandalous incarnation. This time, Roehm is accusing CEO Lee Scott and other top executives of violating the company's code of ethics. She claims that they accepted all kinds of perks from suppliers and engaged in inappropriate relationships.

Of course Wal-Mart fired back denying the allegations. Financier Irwin Jacobs, whose companies do business with Wal-Mart, denied Roehm's suggestions that his relationship with Scott had been too personal and that it had violated the company's code of ethics. However many have been questioning Jacobs' integrity since his days as a corporate raider in the 1980's, and his apparently close relationship with Mr. Scott may raise eyebrows -- guilt by association for both of them.

It will be interesting to see how this story plays out. Ms. Roehm's allegations continue to get more serious and, regardless of whether they're true, they've diverted a lot of the company's attention away from the serious issues that the company is facing.

This got me to thinking: Wal-Mart has been struggling to match Target's (NYSE: TGT) success in fashion, partly because it couldn't convey an edgy image to entice fashionistas. So here's an idea: Given Julie Roehm's relationship with a former colleague, and the salacious details surrounding it that have emerged in the media, maybe Wal-Mart should bring her back to spice things up on the fashion front. As Sarah Gilbert noted, Julie Roehm was too sexy to succeed as an advertising executive at Wal-Mart. But perhaps she's just sexy enough to make the company's clothing hip.

File this under Julie Roehm: avenger. The PR food fight between Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and its former marketing communications chief just got more interesting. I don't know why she picked late Friday afternoon on a get-away-weekend to launch her latest missive but according to the Wall Street Journal, Julie Roehm is alleging that WMT executives violated its ethics policy by accepting discounts on yachts, diamonds and personal gifts from vendors.

To put this into perspective, here's a recap of the rounds so far:

1. Wal-Mart fires Roehm alleging she accepted gifts from an advertising agency that was later chosen to handle WMT's ad account (12/06).
2. Roehm countersues WMT for breach of contract (12/06).
3. In a countersuit, WMT releases salacious details about an alleged affair Roehm had with a subordinate -- Sean Womack -- accusing her of misusing WMT travel funds on business trips with him. The suit cites one e-mail purportedly sent to Womack by Roehm as saying: "I think about us together all of the time. Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me." (3/07).

And today's round goes to Roehm, who alleges that WMT CEO H. Lee Scott, received "preferential prices" on yachts and "a large pink diamond for his wife" through his relationship with Irwin Jacobs. One of Jacobs's companies, Jacobs Trading, has the exclusive right to buy unsold WMT merchandise.

Welcome to the twelfth installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a new weekly column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week I looked at Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE: WMT) stores and how the different formats the retailer uses have are seen throughout the country. From standard discount Wal-Mart stores to Neighborhood Markets to Supercenters, is Wal-Mart's format mix for stores producing optimal results?

This week, I'll be looking at something a bit more invasive for the company: its internal security force. With Wal-Mart being the largest retailer in the country, it's no question that it needs a well-staffed security force to respond to threats and ensure the orderly functioning of the company's information is conducted. But, does this"force" go too far? Let's find out.

With Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE: WMT) annual shareholder meeting coming up on June 1st, wouldn't we all like to be there? From the showmanship and grandstanding that Wal-Mart likes to put on to dissing shareholder requests without a modicum of thought (or so it seems), this time more pressing matters should be in focus: where have Wal-Mart sales gone and why is Lee Scott taking home millions while WMT investors have seen little movement in the stock price in half a decade?

The black helicopters will most certainly be in play (watch out for dark sunglasses) inside the shareholder meeting, and tactics straight out of Mission Impossible will be used to make sure any unrest is quelled and the crowd remains passive. Wal-Mart's security apparatus is headed by Kenneth Senser, a onetime senior FBI and CIA official, so expect state-of-the-art surveillance techniques -- at a public company's shareholder meeting. Could there be a clearer picture of "we trust nobody?"

With all the security (Bruce Gabbard), executive (Tom Coughlin) and PR (Julie Roehm) scandals and black eyes, Wal-Mart's growth rate stumbled in 2006 even as revenues rose to a new record (though profits just inched up). The company's international plans are in flux right now and the company's common stock has not beaten the S&P 500 since 2003. Only if you've been long on WMT for more than 10 years have you done well. Do you think there will be quite a few happenings come June 1st? I think so.

Wal-Mart is working hard to crack down on unscrupulous employees. According to the New York Times:

Over the last five years, Wal-Mart has assembled a team of former officials from the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Justice Department whose elaborate, at times globetrotting, investigations have led to the ouster of a high-profile board member who used company funds to buy hunting equipment, two senior advertising executives who took expensive gifts from a potential supplier and a computer technician who taped a reporter's telephone calls.

Wal-Mart's efforts to keep an eye on its employees -- as evidenced in the Julie Roehm scandal -- go far beyond what most employers do. And the company's efforts to keep out unions are legendary. While there's certainly nothing wrong with working hard to monitor the performance and integrity of employees, it's hard to jive the company's hardline stance on these issues with their inability to keep their parking lots safe, issues involving managers denying employees overtime and forcing them to work off the clock, labor issues at factories in third world countries, and the company's use of illegal immigrants to clean its stores at night (granted, Wal-Mart did not hire those people themselves, they had hired a contractor).

Perhaps if Wal-Mart officials attack these scandals which are bringing the company so much negative publicity with the same vigor they used to investigate Julie Roehm's love-life, they can do a lot to better the retailer's image?

Ever since I first started learning about Julie Roehm and her work, and subsequent abrupt dismissal, as advertising executive for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), I saw a major disconnect. As I wrote at the time of her firing, Roehm "was fast cars, sex and rock-and-roll to Wal-Mart's Buicks, family values and Barry Manilow." Whether or not the allegations -- Roehm's calling them a "smear campaign" today -- of an improper relationship with marketing VP Sean Womack, and acceptance of special favors from potential clients -- were true, well, really. This is advertising, not government contracting (where, if you're going to be frank about it, this sort of thing goes on all the time, too). It's not like Roehm and Womack could sleep together and somehow sink Wal-Mart's considerable ship.

None of the things of which she's been accused would worry me, were I the management team above her. If she was telling a client he had a good chance of being awarded the contract, when he really didn't? That would be a concern, but she's not accused of that. She's basically accused of having a good time, and not even on the company dime.

Seriously. There are many sordid and terrible things going on in corporate America. Nothing Julie Roehm did, or is accused of doing, even comes close to terrible -- and is only sordid if you live a truly puritanical lifestyle. In her statement, Roehm said "Senior executives at Wal-Mart seemed to feel that maybe change wasn't such a good idea. Perhaps some did not like following or taking the advice of a woman."

Another one for the obviousness files. Wal-Mart should never have hired Julie in the first place -- not because she's not a good, even brilliant, marketing executive. Because they were never prepared to take her advice. Because they aren't her kind of people. If you're not prepared for change, don't pretend like you might. It will only hurt you, and the people who see more clearly than you.

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?

In December, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) fired its advertising chief, Julie Roehm, for having an inappropriate affair, accepting gifts from suppliers, and extending business trips to spend more time with Sean Womack, a married Wal-Mart VP, at the company's expense. Now, this is exciting stuff.

Ms. Roehm sued the company for wrongful termination and the company counter-sued [subscription required] her for "using company-paid travel to conduct a torrid affair with a junior executive, of accepting meals and liquor from companies competing for its business, and pursuing a job with one bidder, Interpublic Group of Cos.' DraftFCB."

According to one email (released by Mr. Womack's wife!), Womack wrote, "I feel the need to be inside of your head if I cannot be near you." Ms. Roehm replied, "I think about us together all the time." Eek. She was an advertising executive. You'd think she could have come up with something more creative. Perhaps this explains Wal-Mart's inability to attract the more upscale demographic that Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) is successfully reaching.

According to Reuters and Adage.com, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has assigned its $580 million account to The Martin Agency and Mediavest. The move comes a few weeks after Wal-Mart fired senior marketing executive Julie Roehm.

The move is a victory for Martin parent Interpublic Group. One of its agencies, FCBDraft, had lost the business when the account was thrown into review after Ms. Roehm's departure. Odd as it may seem, Wal-Mart never gave a full accounting of the marketing leader's departure or the need for the review.

Interpublic has been hit by a number of defections at its operating ad agencies, and the stock has only recently come back from a sharp sell off this summer.

For Wal-Mart, the challenge will be directing the new marketing partners to get customers back into the world's largest retailer's US stores. The flagging sales in the company's home market have dropped the stock price 12% over the last two years while the Dow is up over 15%.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at 24/7 Wall St.