Though hostile, blogosphere proves a PR haven for AIG

Post-bailout, AIG airs its message amid the snarky antipathy of the Daily Kos

In managing a gargantuan PR crisis, sometimes striding into enemy territory—and getting smacked around a bit—is the best, and perhaps only, way to get your message across.

AIG’s Peter Tulupman did just that when he engaged in a spirited give-and-take with Daily Kos readers/commenters in the wake of AIG’s $85 billion emergency federal loan.

“We have had a difficult time getting mainstream media to run balanced stories about AIG,” said Tulupman, the insurance giant’s manager of corporate public relations. “We were really struggling to get our story out there.”

So if the mainstream media was less than warm and fuzzy in its coverage—especially after AIG spent more than $440,000 dollars for an executive getaway at a California beach resort just days after the bailout—what in the world would prompt Tulupman to engage the blogosphere, especially a left-leaning site such as Daily Kos?

A confluence of AIG’s frustration with the coverage and Kos editors’ and readers’ escalating anger over the Wall Street bailout brought about the exchange.