“Merrill Lynch has turned bearish on ‘bullish’,” writes Stuart Elliott in today’s New York Times.

“Relax. Merrill Lynch & Company is not turning its back on decades of marketing communications centered on the bull, the traditional symbol for optimism on Wall Street. It’s just that, well, ever since the stock markets began sinking last year, it just didn’t seem appropriate for Merrill Lynch to focus its estimated $150 million in annual advertising on campaigns carrying the theme ‘Be bullish.’ “

“So in a corporate campaign scheduled to begin this week in many countries, the New York office of J. Walter Thompson, a division of the WPP Group that has been Merrill’s agency since 1998, is pitch-switching for the second time in two years. Out goes ‘Be bullish,’ which succeeded ‘Human achievement’ in early 2000, and in comes ‘Ask Merrill.’ “

“Ask Merrill? Ask Merrill if she wants to go to the prom? Ask Merrill if she remembered to turn off the iron before she left the house? Ask Merrill what it was like to write for David Letterman?”

“No, actually, it’s more like ‘Ask, and it will be given you,’ an implied invitation to try Merrill Lynch’s services, whether you are an investor, an entrepreneur or an acquisitive tycoon. After all, doesn’t another Bible passage go, ‘Ye have not, because ye ask not’?”

” ‘Ask Merrill is a bold promise, because it says If you ask us, we will deliver, ‘ said Madeline A. Weinstein, senior vice president and director for corporate marketing at Merrill Lynch in New York.”

” ‘It’s very easy to look at Be bullish as a market call, but it was never intended to be,’ she added. ‘The Be bullish campaign was primarily focused on our optimism,’ derived from ‘our belief in our capabilities, our expertise.’ “

“The replacement of Be bullish with Ask Merrill was foreshadowed by the introduction of a Web site that included the phrase in its address, promoting the Unlimited Advantage brokerage account. The change is intended as a reminder ‘of the lessons of the last several months about the importance of expertise, the importance of advice,’ Ms. Weinstein said.”