We recently discussed what appeared to be the glaring hypocrisy of financial/insurance giant AIG. We grew interested after the release of what was supposed to have been a rousing ad campaign thanking American taxpayers for their (non-optional) support during the financial crisis even as the company was simultaneously considering suing the government.

The suit would have claimed that the abnormally high interest rate charged by the fed during the bailout violated the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which protects “private property” against “public use, without just compensation”. While AIG ultimately decided not to back the lawsuit (ya think?), the story has already subverted the brand’s we’ve-cleaned-up-our-act message. The damage, as they say, is done.

“The hiccup with the lawsuit issue stole a great deal of the thunder from the ad”, said Bruce Haynes, managing partner of Purple Strategies, a corporate communications and branding management company. “For a moment, it seems they were awash in hypocrisy. Although they made a good decision not to back the lawsuit, it was a communication failure”. That’s putting it mildly — this was one hell of a hiccup. In fact, if we take the hiccup metaphor literally, we think it would look something like this (It’s a cat GIF. You’re welcome).

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Today in You Have Got to Be Kidding News, insurance giant American International Group–seen by many as the most obvious bad guy in the economic collapse that nearly wrecked the world’s biggest economy in 2008–has apparently considered joining a suit against the very entity that saved its ass from oblivion: the U.S. government.

AIG has repaid the billions in federal loans that allowed it to stay afloat, but the suit (filed by the company’s former chief executive, who is still an investor) claims that the abnormally high interest rate charged by the government violates the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which protects “private property” against “public use, without just compensation” (of course, the company agreed to this rate when accepting the bailout).

To state the obvious: this is a bit of a contradiction from a corporate entity that just released an ad “thanking” the American taxpayer for providing the funds that allowed it to live another day. Here’s that predictably ridiculous spot, complete with models straight out of a stock photo portfolio.

OK, so AIG thanks Americans for helping it survive when they had no choice in the matter but sues the government for supposedly screwing its shareholders by making a profit off an extremely risky investment? We won’t call ourselves business experts, but we can’t think of a better way for a massive company to fail its investors than falling into bankruptcy thanks to its own dubious practices.

Now we have a headache. And while we understand that AIG was and is “too big to fail”, at this moment we really wish the government had just let it burn.

Weber Shandwick has teamed up with Liberty Mutual Insurance to become the go-to firm for crisis comms for that company’s customers, part of the insurer’s “commercial lead umbrella policy.”

With this new relationship in place, policyholders will have 72 hours to file a claim for $50,000 worth of crisis management services from the firm. Policyholders also have the option of purchasing additional coverage that would get them $250,000 worth of crisis management. That’s a mighty big crisis! We’ve asked the firm what exactly in included at the $50,000 level of service and we’ll come back with those details once we have them.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of this sort of partnership. Back in October, an AIG subsidiary, Chartis, announced a partnership with Burson-Marsteller and Porter Novelli to provide a “ReputationGuard” service. In that case, an annual premium of $10,000 would guarantee policyholders some crisis management service.

Well now. AIG subsidiary Chartis has launched a product this week called “ReputationGuard” that will offer services from Burson-Marsteller and Porter Novelli to account holders in case of a crisis situation. Policy prices vary, but a small company could shell out $10,000 in annual premiums.

Yes, we’re talking about the AIG that got all that bailout cash and became the object of intense scorn when the economy collapsed in ’08. AIG’s own crisis situation was so bad, this subsidiary changed its name from AIU Holdings to Chartis so it wouldn’t be associated with its parent company. And, according to a Harris Interactive study from earlier this year, its reputation is still pretty much in the toilet.

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