Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Iron-Clad Stupidity

Obviously, the talented executives at AIG have absolutely no regard for the public relations catastrophe that their obscene behavior is inflicting to the company. After this bizarre performance, who in their right mind would consider doing business with these bozos? Would you trust them as your insurance company?
Bank of America was the first to air a grossly indecent (and very expensive looking) commercial about this being America and the bank helping to open doors, presumably to all those people it foreclosed by selling them evil mortgages. It's called spin, advertising, brainwashing, however you want to name it. I'm sure that right now nobody is so gullible or clueless as to believe it, but B of A thinks it has to do it to keep afloat what's left of their good name. That it makes people gag is another story.
Yesterday I saw another such commercial, an epic, fake-emotional wonder from General Electric, trying to remind people why their stock should not be costing 9 bucks. "Imagination at work" is right.
AIG seems oblivious to such concerns.
Which makes me wonder whether the man who is leading it is not damaging it even more. Instead of claiming "iron-clad" legal obligations, which legal experts have all debunked as utter crock, he should be setting an example for his troops and either firing them or telling them to surrender their bonuses voluntarily. Or as that senator said, politely suggest they commit hara-kiri. He should be fired as well.
The American public is outraged not only at the sheer audacity of the nerve, but also at being treated like morons by these people. As if insurance companies don't do whatever is in their power not to respect their side of the contract when someone comes down with a catastrophic illness or has a "preexisting condition" or there is an "act of God" like Katrina. There is no lost love between those creeps and the American customer, but if you look at the tropes of insurance advertising they are all about honesty and trust and safety and empathy and being in good hands and all that crock of bullshit designed to make people think they are not putting their lives and limbs at the mercy of ruthless, heartless crooks. As Jay Leno said, AIG stands for Adventures In Greed.
We may be bailing out this stupid company, but will it ever survive its bad name?*

*And will the Obama administration ever survive it, now coyly feigning innocence and outrage.
Larry Summers is a chazer (a pig; everybody must learn Yiddish already) and Geithner is no better.

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