AIG's PR Crisis: Four Agencies Still Not Making Headway

I know that most blogs and people I talk to on Twitter have written off AIG and its ability to salvage its image.

I wrote Five PR Steps AIG Should Take anyway because the company is not going away yet. I've witnessed two firms -- a small family business and a mid-size law firm -- as they tried to wind down business, and it took years for it to happen. And compared to AIG, they were relatively simple businesses.

Since AIG is going to be around in one form or another, I believe its management will need to engage a PR firm to help it communicate to Congress and taxpayers as well as the usual stakeholders.

Turns out, according to a BreakingNews.com article, Dizzying PR binge, AIG has hired four PR agencies:

• Kekst & Company, handling its asset sales
  
• Sard Verbinnen, handling IR
  
• Hill & Knowlton, focusing on inside the Beltway
  
• Burson-Marsteller, focusing on inside the Beltway

I assume H&K and B-M are focusing on lobbying, but they probably need to do more in communicating with the rest of us.

So, like it or not, AIG is working to improve its image. For more on some of what AIG's PR machine is doing, check out TalkingPointsMemo's AIG's PR Blitz.

It will be interesting to see how effective they are.