The toxic AIG brand

Forty-five days ago, most people hadn't heard of AIG. Today it's perceived as one of the most contemptuous companies on the planet. If you were an ad agency or public relations firm, would you take on AIG as a client? Give it an extreme image makeover? Some might argue that this is the ultimate communications challenge. If you could get people to like AIG and do business with them, you'd likely buy yourself a spot in the communications hall of fame. And you'd make money along the way. Fair enough.

But this is a highly toxic brand. It smells funny. It burns. That's a tough ship to turn around. I read on Yahoo that former AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg says the bailout has "failed" and he's proposing a 10-point alternative focused on saving, not breaking apart, the mega-insurer.

Greenberg gets an "A" for effort. But if he and others plan to save AIG, they better plan on burying the AIG name.