Isamu, where’s that bridge?
Advise your clients to not use their money for new private jets and a state-of-the-art hanger to keep them in, not even if the hanger “will be built with reclaimed wood, quarry tile and even a vegetated roof garden.” And don’t ask for taxpayer funds and then say…
If you have money for private jets then why are we giving you money? If you need our money, then why are you spending some of your own on private jets and a new hanger?
And tell your clients, oh so politely, to STFU about people complaining.
The professional public relations forums are definitely discussing this mess. The ones I frequent have basically reached a consensus that 1) AIG screwed up big time and 2) if AIG continues to insist that bonuses are a standard way of doing business, implying that the company doesn’t see anything wrong or any reason to change in the future, no amount of PR is going to help them.
On the other hand, AIG’s CEO, Ed Liddy, generally got pretty good marks from PR professionals in his congressional appearance. Liddy didn’t attempt to paint the compensation structure as a Good Thing, but kept telling the committee that legally the company had to pay the contracts – but that didn’t mean they would continue to do so going forward.
Tell your clients that a name change might fool some people, but shit still smells like shit, whether it’s AIG or AIU Holdings Ltd. (or Blackwater/Xe).