Last summer, the scandal plagued pharmaceutical rollup Valeant did something truly brilliant - it changed its name to Bausch Health, hoping that somehow people would ignore its long legacy of impropriety simply because it has a new name. It did not work.

Now, another scandal-ridden company hopes to follow in Valeant's footsteps, and as Bloomberg reports, Boeing is open to dropping the “Max” branding for its latest 737 jetliner, depending on the outcome of a global study it’s conducting of consumer and airline responses to an aircraft name that’s been tarnished by two fatal crashes and a three-month grounding. Something tells us the study would confirm that people have at most zero interest in flying in a plane that has now been revealed Boeing cut corners on - almost literally - to make sure it is cheap enough to make even at the risk of loss of life.

"I’d say we’re being open-minded to all the input we get,” CFO Greg Smith said Monday in an interview on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show. "We’re committed to doing what we need to do to restore it. If that means changing the brand to restore it, then we’ll address that. If it doesn’t, we’ll address whatever is a high priority."

For now, and perhaps expecting the outcry that this particular strategy will unleash adding to the company's pre-existing woes, executives insist they have "no immediate plans to drop the Max name for something less associated with tragedy, such as the product numbers that marked earlier generations of the company’s best-selling aircraft."

As Bloomberg puts it, "a name change would be a retreat for the planemaker, which has worked hard to capture the imagination of travelers with monikers such as Max and Dreamliner, as the 787 is called."

According to the report, the Boeing CFO tunes in to daily phone calls with CEO Dennis Muilenburg and Greg Hyslop, who oversees the aerospace giant’s engineering corps. They’ve hired outside advisers to help with branding and technical matters, along with crisis-management experts Sard Verbinnen.

But most amusing would be that once again Trump would be right: two months ago, the president suggested that Boeing should change the Max name, saying that the company should “rebrand the plane with a new name."

What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name.

No product has suffered like this one. But again, what the hell do I know? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019

At the time, Trump's proposal was roungly mocked. Two months later, the company is on the verge of doing just what Trump suggested.

The big risk for Boeing is that instead of overhauling an airliner which the general public broadly loathes, it will instead be perceived as taking yet another shortcut while gambling with people's lives. To be sure, the process is unfamiliar territory for a company more accustomed to wrangling with airlines, lawmakers and heads of state, according to Bloomberg.

“How do you talk to that person in seat 17A,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, the Boeing brand is ours.” Yeah, that might be a problem. In any case, whatever Boeing ends up deciding, may we suggest to stay away from Boeing Model S or X.