June 09, 2009

All are new names and new slogans for old companies with big worries and, in some cases, even bigger image problems.Ally is the lender formerly known as GMAC Bank, once part of now bankrupt General Motors. Change that “U” to a “G” in A.I.U. and you get A.I.G., the American International Group, which owns A.I.U. Redneck is the new name for the online arm of plain old Bank of the Wichitas.

First came the bailout, now comes the burnishing. Not since the Great Depression has the nation’s financial industry confronted so much bad P.R. So with cheery, the-future-is-bright advertising and, in some cases, revisionist branding, companies are trying to put their troubled pasts behind them, or at least out of the public’s mind.