Irony alert: AIG's ad reel

Posted by Pat Regnier

Do you remember the good old days, back before AIG exploded all over us in a flaming explosion of ineptitude, arrogance and greed? Back when AIG was a somewhat mysterious financial megacorp with a series of slick, smug ads, many of them starring annoyingly precocious children?
You don't have to remember, because the ads are still there on YouTube, in all their preening, presumptuous glory. Looking at them now, each ad now positively drenched in irony, we can see AIG's faults writ large: the arrogance, the self-satisfaction, the insistence that AIG knew the ins and outs of money better than everyone, and that anyone who didn't go with AIG was a fuddy-duddy forever stuck in Squaresville, USA.
Like this little masterpiece, which informs us somberly that "the greatest risk is not taking one."
Or this one, in which the AIG logo is transformed into an Olympic champion.
Then there's this one, in which the aforementioned precocious children discuss "risk management" and conclude that parents who go with AIG "rock!"
Naturally, some clever Internetter has reworked the ending to this memorable addition to the precocious children series [rewritten one]:
(Here's the original:)
If watching all these ads has made you as angry as it made me, here's a little antidote. It's 58 seconds of kittens. They're not selling anything. They make no special claims to financial expertise. They'll never take millions in bonuses or demand billions in bailout money. They're just kittens, and they're really, really interested in this cardboard box.
–David Futrelle

CNNMoney.com Comment Policy: CNNMoney.com encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You may not post any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law. Please note that CNNMoney.com may edit comments for clarity or to keep out questionable or off-topic material. All comments should be relevant to the post and remain respectful of other authors and commenters. By submitting your comment, you hereby give CNNMoney.com the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, cablecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comment(s) and accompanying personal identifying information via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity. CNNMoney.com Privacy Statement.
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.
Powered by WordPress.com VIP.