Scary Times

The New York Times had an online article on Monday about the value that advertising firms can bring to the financial and insurance sector in the wake of the AIG bail out and the Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy announcement. The article points out that although Lehman’s isn’t a major advertiser, the ad agency community is definitely feeling the crunch. The article goes on to talk about how advertisers should take this opportunity to help their clients get their branding messages out quickly and really take a position letting consumers know about their financial strength.

Interestingly enough, there’s no mention of using the web to help get this message out. The article mentions that companies are working on their creative and branding message, but it seems as though this is all intended for offline media. I would think that the situation in the financial world is the perfect opportunity for one of the bigger players to step into the online space immediately advising of how customers can trust their company. Of course there’s a lot to be said for fully developing creative and taking time to develop messaging, but I’m really surprised that no one’s jumped at the opportunity provided with the web. These are definitely scary times but they could get a lot worse for those who delay in getting their message out.