“Only a little more than a year ago, Stuart was a cult hero on Wall Street,” writes Gregory Zuckerman in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“The star of a cheeky advertising campaign from upstart brokerage firm Ameritrade, Stuart was a tattooed office boy egging his boss to trade stocks online. His boss got with the program, as did many individual investors.”

“But with the Nasdaq Composite Index down by half since March of last year, online trading has shriveled, and investors are less enamored with both stocks and do-it-yourself investing.”

“Now the Wall Street establishment is responding. In the first of what may be a series of advertising campaigns by big-name firms, Merrill Lynch has launched a television, print and radio campaign urging investors to buy bonds, diversify their portfolios and use a financial adviser. Stuart would have blanched.”

” ‘Fifteen months ago investors only wanted to hear about equities. Now they want to learn how to diversify their portfolio, and they’re interested in bonds and alternative investments,’ says Rosemary Berkery, senior vice president of marketing and investments at Merrill Lynch.”

“Comedian Steve Martin provides the voice behind the television and radio ads of the national campaign. Merrill Lynch will spend more than $25 million on the campaign, which was developed by J. Walter Thompson, a unit of London-based WPP Group.”

“One of the television spots features a young, well-heeled man sitting on his living-room couch, rewinding a videocassette. He stops to watch snippets of a financial TV show, with on-air personalities screaming that ‘the market isn’t even close to slowing down’ and ‘they expect the Nasdaq to surge past 6000.’ (The Nasdaq peaked at 5048.62 on March 10, 2000, and closed at 2080.11 Thursday).”

“The young man’s eyes tear up as he watches the clips. Mr. Martin comes on to say Merrill Lynch’s brokers can’t do anything about the past, but they ‘can make the future something to look forward to.’

“In a radio spot, Mr. Martin says he has always stuck with stocks because bonds are ‘boring.’ But after the rough period in the market, he consulted his Merrill Lynch adviser, who recommended diversifying into fixed-income securities.”