Last week, a Senator helpfully suggested to the CEO of AIG that the company consider changing its name, and the CEO said that was in the works. Sure enough, this week the company took down the AIG nameplate from its lower Manhattan office, replacing it with the name "American International." The company would also like to be known by its new name, AIU Holdings Inc.
Will this help those parts of the business that are distant from the financial services division and its ill-fated activities in destroying our economy? Maybe. But I hope that consumers and other buyers of insurance know that when their broker recommends a policy from AIU, they are doing business with the notorious-but-renamed AIG.
As for a "rebranding," I doubt that this company will emerge unscathed from this economic calamity to gain much benefit from a cosmetic name change. Talk about toxic -- AIG has managed to make its name and business radioactive.
It will take a lot more than a PR makeover to save whatever is left of AIG.
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