Wal-Mart to drop savings claims in its ads

A national consumer watchdog has told Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that it should stop running national television ads that claim shoppers can save $700 a year by patronizing its stores.

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus made the recommendation Monday after H-E-B Grocery Co., a large, Texas-based supermarket chain, filed a complaint in December challenging several of Wal-Mart's advertising campaigns.

The National Advertising Division faulted an ad Wal-Mart began running last fall that features a shot of packaged grocery items and a voiceover that says shoppers could save $700 if they bought the items at Wal-Mart. A four-second statement at the end of the ad said the claim is based on a study by Global Insight Inc. on 2007 sales of packaged foods and that "local savings vary."

Wal-Mart said it is no longer running the ad, but that it disagrees with NAD's findings: "We firmly believe that claim is well-supported by the Global Insight study, and that the advertising clearly communicated the claim and the basis for the claim."

An H-E-B spokeswoman it is prohibited from talking about the case due to National Advertising Division guidelines.

by ANN ZIMMERMAN