IAR: ING, AOL Sign $30M Marketing Pact

Dutch financial giant ING said on Monday its U.S. financial services group has signed a three-year marketing pact with AOL Time Warner to add creative flair to ING's new personal finance site.

…The pace taps into AOL Time Warner's array of media properties for ING's new Web site, ING MoneyMentor. The site draws on both editorial and entertainment content from AOL Time Warner properties for an "edutainment" experience. In addition to consumer finance information and tools from CNNMoney.com, MoneyMentor has content from TBS' "Dinner and a Movie" show. DC Comics' superheroes The Flash and The Green Lantern are tapped to present personal finance in an entertaining light.

I hate to by cynical, but this strikes me as having clueless written all over it. (Oh, who am I kidding? I love being cynical!) A $30 million ad deal with AOL? What year is this, 1998? Let's see…who would I trust to advise me about investment decisions for my family? I know: comic book super heroes!