CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Rules of Retirement Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts

Countrywide to launch PR campaign

The troubled mortgage lender hires Burson-Marsteller to coordinate an effort to improve the company's image.


(NEW YORK) CNNMoney.com -- Countrywide Financial Corp., will launch an aggressive new campaign aimed at repairing its image following this summer's subprime debacle, according to a transcript of a conference call obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

Andrew "Drew" Gissinger III, Countrywide's executive managing director of residential lending, organized the call involving 250 "opinion leaders" from within the company.

Gissinger said the campaign will respond to the spate of negative press the company has seen lately, what he referred to as, " the continued unwarranted attacks regarding our viability."

"It's gotten to the point where our integrity is being attacked, NOW IT'S PERSONAL," Gissinger said, according to the Journal.

Countrywide (Charts, Fortune 500) has hired public relations firm Burson-Marsteller to coordinate the effort, according to the transcript. The campaign will be directed internally and externally.

The internal campaign will feature a series of town hall meetings where employees will be asked to sign a "Protect Our House Pledge." Wristbands stamped with the slogan "Protect Our House" will be distributed in exchange for signing the pledge.

The external campaign, "Protect Your House," is aimed at reassuring existing customers through extensive media outreach efforts, as well as direct communication with Countrywide's partners, the transcript said.  Top of page

Sponsors
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.