MF Global Ad: ‘We Have Convictions’
A perusal of the latest issue of Barron's turned up the following ad for brokerage firm MF Global:
(If you are having trouble seeing the image, click here.)
Somehow the ad, published Saturday, reads a little differently now, in light of recent events: Though no one's been formally accused, the firm is now under investigation by regulators and by the FBI after hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to customers went missing. The CEO -- former New Jersey governor, former Senator and former Goldman Sachs chief Jon Corzine -- resigned today without severance and according to the New York Times, has hired a criminal defense attorney.
Get Updates
Our Hottest Stories
- Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
- In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives
- Billion Dollar Bait & Switch: States Divert Foreclosure Deal Funds
- Pardon Attorney Torpedoes Plea for Presidential Mercy
- Patient Died at New York VA Hospital After Alarm Was Ignored
- Introducing the ProPublica Patient Harm Community on Facebook
- Got Student Loans? Share Your Documents With Us
- Built for a Simpler Era, OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die
- Remember Stuxnet? Why the U.S. is Still Vulnerable
- Congressional Leader Calls for Investigation of the Pardon Office
- Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
- Pardon Attorney Torpedoes Plea for Presidential Mercy
- In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives
- Air Force Pilots Balk at Flying the World’s Most Expensive Fighter Jet
- Patient Died at New York VA Hospital After Alarm Was Ignored
- Watchdog Group Calls for Probe of Lobbyists Behind Congressional Trip to Taiwan
- Billion Dollar Bait & Switch: States Divert Foreclosure Deal Funds
- N.Y. Congressman Will Reimburse Costs for $22,000 Taiwan trip
- Remember Stuxnet? Why the U.S. is Still Vulnerable
- Happy Graduation! Here's The Best, Most Depressing Journalism on Student Debt
8 comments
Mervyn Cripps
Nov. 4, 2011, 5:08 p.m.
That’s a classic. Way back in the 1950s when I was a printer’s devil a guy placed a four-column, ten-inch newspaper ad. He was a pianist, who rented a theatre to give a recital. The ad showed his picture with a piano, his name in large type with the word “exhibitionist” underneath.
I complained to everyone concerned and was told “That’s what he wants. That’s what he’s paying for. That’s what we’re going to give him.” Later, it was pinned up on the bulletin board until it turned yellow. That’s when a journeyman told me to follow copy, and then you can never get in trouble.
ExExZonie
Nov. 5, 2011, 1:41 p.m.
No brag, just fact - or a prediction.
Gary L. Zerman
Nov. 7, 2011, 5:39 p.m.
Maybe MF Global was being prescient and referring to criminal convictions.
Mary
Nov. 7, 2011, 7:26 p.m.
We hope so!! says the wife of an independent commodity trader at CME in Chicago, who along with manyyyyy others is screwed.
John
Nov. 8, 2011, 12:31 p.m.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the innuendo was intentional, honestly. Most of the Wall Streeters I know think of themselves as mobsters and are desperate for “underground culture.”
Why was Bernie Madoff so successful? I kid you not, people assumed he was doing something illegal, so they wanted in, “a piece of the action.”
I don’t know anybody related to MF, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they used the word to imply wrongdoing to drum up business.
z Rants
Nov. 8, 2011, 5:20 p.m.
Talk about a bad choice and timing of ad copy. Predicting the worse for the former CEO of MF Global. Wonder who approved it.
Jack Sheepman
Nov. 9, 2011, 9:26 a.m.
The bankers love to put the hurt on people and then rub our faces in it. Just like JP Morgan Chase constantly driving silver and gold prices down by naked short selling.
z rants
Nov. 9, 2011, 5:19 p.m.
Ads that backfire. Will the agency keep the account?
Commenting on this story is closed.