Of late, I’ve been noting the eerie similarities between two U.S. corporations with similar names:
Let us compare and contrast, shall we?
AIP: First release: the original The Fast and the Furious.
AIG: First business: corporate insurance for US and European firms in China.
AIP: Worked on low budgets. Shot some films in as few as two days.
AIG: Spared no expense, at our expense, to enrich its own speculators.
AIP: Carefully market-tested titles and posters before making each film.
AIG: Brazenly insisted its mortgage-based derivatives were safe and secure.
AIP: Redubbed the original Mad Max from Australian into American.
AIG: Stamped questionable investment products with “AAA” ratings.
AIP: Mixed-and-matched film genres to make new hits (I Was a Teenage Werewolf, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini).
AIG: Sliced-and-diced mortgages into credit default swaps and other slabs of tainted loan-burger.
AIP: Used subsidiary names to release even-lower-budget films (including the original Little Shop of Horrors).
AIG: Renamed its consumer insurance division “21st Century” to protect it from the now-tarnished AIG brand.
AIP: Helped launch the film careers of Annette Funicello, Jack Nicholson, Cher, Vincent Price, Pam Grier, Peter Fonda, and producer-director Roger Corman.
AIG: Paid “failure bonuses” to high-ranking derivative traders and executives.
AIP: Taken over by sitcom producer Filmways (The Beverly Hillbillies). Film library now owned by MGM.
AIG: Taken over by the U.S. government.
AIP: In-house formulae of sex, horror, and comedy helped inspire The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
AIG: Media critic Robert Stein has decribed politicians’ and pundits’ response to the bonus scandal as “Bailout Rocky Horror Shows.”
AIP: Known for its hokiness, its audacity, its improbable stories, and its ridiculous monsters.
AIG: Not much different.
