So the issue has been hammered home by news outlets around the world, but we’ll say it again: the U.S. economy is in a dire crisis. Last week, as Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, American International Group (AIG) narrowly escaped the same fate with a government bailout of $85 billion in taxpayer dollars. Yet while financial institutions scrambled and Americans tried to guard their money, AIG competitor New York Life was busy coming up with a new advertising campaign to play up the reliability and stability of the organization. The rationale is that they wanted to distinguish themselves from all the big brands that have fallen. The question is, will it work?

So how will some simple advertisements restore our faith in the reliability and stability of the financial system and pit one organization as being safer and better than its failed counterpart?N ew York Life would be better served by launching a thought leadership campaign with a point-of-view that addresses the issues facing consumers in an insightful manner. The company ought to talk about the steps consumers can take to ensure their money is safe; the right way to buy insurance during this time; or the ten actions consumers must take to ensure financial security. Simply throwing money at an ad campaign isn’t going to make people feel confident. We’ve seen too many unexpected fallouts in the system to not be skeptical. But becoming a thought leader in financial security, teaching us how to find it during this time of turmoil, and backing it up with good advice and a confident approach, just might show that there is a light at the end of this very dark tunnel.

So, what do you get when you take a slighted late night comedian with a devout television audience, add a fifteen minute void to his scheduled program, and further insult him by appearing on a different show that evening? A recipe for PR disaster.

Check out the video here.

Say what? There are perks that come along with a recession? Well not across the board, but for those who can take a step back and evaluate the whole scene, there are real opportunities to strengthen and set a business apart from the competition during a recession.

When markets experience a downswing, it tends to affect the emotions and dealings of businesses around the world. As we face weighty stock drops and fear of bank closures, the natural response is to spend time and energy to worry and stress. Instead of mulling over down revenue or client loss, a recession is the ideal time to improve areas of your business you normally don’t have the time to pay attention to.

What does this mean for you? How can you make the most of a down market?

Network: On days that you’d normally be stuck at the office until 7 or 8pm at night, get out and hit a happy hour or speaking event. Broadening your contacts even in your local community can open doors, and now’s the time to do it.

Marketing: They say the first thing to go in a company’s budget is usually ad or marketing dollars. Now, more than ever, your clients need to know – by hearing and seeing – that you’re still in the game. Amp up your marketing, PR and ad efforts while other stay on the sidelines and there’s a real opportunity to make a quantum leap.

Study: Take one hour of every day and dedicate it to learning about your business – or another in your client circle. Whether it’s the newspaper , the latest and greatest business book, or a slew of knowledgeable magazines, we always tell our clients that reading the news is akin to getting a master’s degree on the side.

Engage Your Employees: Now more than ever, employees need to feel safe and secure. With fears of losing a job on the lips of everyone, a five-minute sit down to check in with your employees on a weekly basis can go far.

Know the Changing Needs of Your Clients – A recession will bring about different needs. It’s important to have open conversations with your clients about the direction of their business and how you can help them through the time.

History has proven that markets will eventually bounce back. How soon we may not know, but keeping your head on straight amidst a very emotional and irrational time is the key to maintaining a strong, growing business.

All right, by now everyone knows the story of the demise of Lehman Brothers. Once one of the most storied firms on Wall Street; mismanagement and perhaps a false sense of invincibility led to its recent bankruptcy. But what makes matters even worse is how the firm communicated the news to its employees – or didn’t communicate it.

Dejected employees reported that they read the news in the Wall Street Journal and other online sources and never received any kind of formal written or verbal communication. Sometimes, companies do this unhappy business well; sometimes they do it poorly, But to not do it at all? Talk about adding insult to injury.

Clearly the firm’s management had some other things on its mind but they could have taken a few moments to dictate or delegate a communication piece outlining the impending doom to the people it affected most. They violated the first rule of crisis communication – show them that you care – and ultimately they left a lot of people who had made them a lot of money feeling very insignificant.

The moral here from a communication standpoint is that people can accept when mistakes are made but they’re a lot more difficult to swallow when you don’t demonstrate basic human courtesy.  So whether it’s an accounting error, a product malfunction, a layoff or a lapse in security; apologize for your mistake and communicate clearly about what you’re going to do about it. Even if there isn’t much you can do about it, as was the case with Lehman, at least you can show them that you care. Many times people will forgive incompetence. What they won’t forgive is how executives handled their people.