Previously, Julie had been in Detroit, first at Ford, then at DaimlerChrysler, where she had made a big reputation in a field almost as predictable as retail. The company made her a senior vice-president and told her to rethink its image, the assignment of a lifetime. In January 2006, shortly before dumping its old ad relationships, Wal-Mart hired a vivacious young blonde named Julie Roehm. The wise men of Bentonville wondered if a little change wouldn’t do them good. And so Wal-Mart had lately begun to experience something strange: dissatisfaction. Who needed fancy ads when Wal-Mart bulldozed the competition with rock-bottom prices? Except that growth on a per-store basis had slowed by half over the past five years. And so, to the advertising world, Bentonville seemed like an undiscovered continent, the kind where bold people might make their mark (and a fortune), might, perhaps, create a brand-new world.įor 30 years, Wal-Mart’s advertising needs were handled by the same two firms, one southern and one midwestern, arrangements that folksy Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton had sealed with a handshake. For a decade or more, its advertising approach had barely budged. Bentonville is the home of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer and second largest company in the world just about every American (except, of course, for New Yorkers) lives within a half-hour of a Wal-Mart. That is, unless you happen to be a marketer. But Bentonville, Arkansas? It’s a much less common fantasy. Most people think of Paris or Venice as the kind of city where dreams come true. So into the garden they brought two young marketers named Julie Roehm and Sean Womack and a gruff, aggressive adman named Howard Draft. But then other stores like Target began to lure consumers with fancy products and splashy ads, and the elders of Bentonville decided they needed a sexier image. For a long time, things continued this way, even after Sam died. He also decreed that his employees would live as simply as he did, sharing hotel rooms and keeping their expenses to a bare minimum, topping out at $35 a day for food, which is barely enough to buy a decent hamburger in New York. And Sam ruthlessly bullied manufacturers and undersold his competition, crushing mom-and-pop stores across the land. In the beginning, there was Sam Walton, and he invented Wal-Mart and saw that it was good, and he drove a pickup and wore clothes from his own store, even as he built more across the globe and became the richest man in America. Seating is limited and first come, first served.Ĭlose-up of a woman’s eyes from the documentary film “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power.Julie Roehm, Wal-Mart's femme fatale. Register for the free event and plan to arrive early. TFT Professor Fabian Wagmister will be the moderator. After the screening, Menkes, a 1989 graduate of TFT’s MFA production program, will be in conversation with Maya Smukler, a film scholar and author, and film editor Nancy Richardson. The event, hosted by the TFT Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, will begin with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by the screening at 7 p.m. The film features interviews with an all-star cast of women and non-binary industry professionals including Rosanna Arquette, Julie Dash and Catherine Hardwicke. Menkes shows how these not-so-subtle embedded messages are tied to sexual abuse and assault in Hollywood. The film illuminates the patriarchal narrative codes that hide within supposedly “classic” set-ups and camera angles and demonstrates how women are frequently displayed as objects for the use, support and pleasure of male subjects. Using clips from hundreds of movies - from “Metropolis” to “Vertigo” to “Phantom Thread” - Menkes makes the argument that shot design is gendered. Join the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television for a special screening of “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power,” independent filmmaker Nina Menkes’ documentary about the sexual politics of cinematic shot design, at the James Bridges Theater.
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