Any other name would smell as sweet?
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart recently noted one of the odder twists of the financial bailout. Insurer AIG, bailed out to the tune of $180 billion, has ... Wait, I'll let Stewart tell it:
Stewart: "AIG is making some radical changes."After a bit of commentary that's too blue to quote here, Stewart said: "Also changing its name post-bailout: Citigroup, which will now become Citigrouu. While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac become, respectively, Mindy Sue and Jeffrey Monk. Plus Bank of America will now be called the Good Time Teddy Bear Hugateria."Clip of Edward Liddy, the company's CEO: "I think the AIG name is so thoroughly wounded, ... we've already begun the rebranding process to AIU."
Stewart: "$180 billion dollars and all you come up with is, 'Why don't we change a letter.' Talk about buying a vowel!"
You've got to laugh or you'll cry, right?
For non-comedy reporting on AIG's rebranding, see this Reuters story about efforts "to distance the giant insurer's sprawling operations across 130 countries away from the AIG name" and this Bloomberg article about the company taking its logo off ID badges and company credit cards.
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Comments
Loved that episode. I laughed til I cried.
Posted by: Lesley | June 16, 2009 8:32 PM