OPINION: Mills on ... Norwich Union, dominic.mills@haynet.com.(Robin Lloyd Associates)

Briefly, let me start this column in my finest Michael Caine mode: name the tenth-largest advertiser on radio in 2001.

Gotcha! The answer is, of course, Robin Lloyd Associates (who he?) which, incidentally, spent more than the likes of Camelot, Toyota and Procter & Gamble.

If, like me, the name scarcely registers, don't worry. Most readers of this column won't be in the target market - yet. Robin Lloyd is in the business of buying endowment and pension annuity policies - you know, the ones that aren't going to be worth what those snake-oil salesmen swore blind they would be when your mortgage or pension matures.

Think of Robin Lloyd as the ambulance chaser of the financial services sector. And the ambulances it is chasing have been rescuing consumers injured in the multiple car pile-up caused by the reckless driving of the financial services industry.

Against that background, and in view of the prevailing stock market trend, you might think that the most sensible option for the major financial services companies would be to keep their heads down and conserve their marketing budgets until the storm blows over and the consumer trust that they've done so much to destroy is at least repaired, if not restored.

However, some of the big players are spending big money. The enigmatic Scottish Widow is prancing round her lighthouse. The Pru has discovered the joy of poetry a la Pam Ayres. Clive James and Dame Edna are rhapsodising about AMP.

And now Norwich Union has discovered trawlermen. Its new ad by McCann-Erickson features a Geordie fisherman telling how he's dead relaxed because, thanks to loads of impartial advice from Norwich Union, he's got all his finances sorted.