While financial firms were taking giant punts to give their profits some va-va-voom, their marketing departments were conjuring up phrases to convey the impression that banks and insurers, like diamonds, were forever. Now that the future's not bright, it is obvious that some were probably the worst corporate slogans in the world. From American International Group, a collapsed insurer ("the strength to be there"), through to Lehman Brothers ("where vision gets built") and Indy Mac, a failed bank ("you can count on us"), boastful institutions snapped, crackled and popped under pressure.
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