Features
Never Mind The Late Fees
Do you ever feel like you’ve been cheated? Some people might think so when they find out their new Sex Pistols-branded credit card has an APR of 18.9 percent.
The new Sex Pistols-approved credit card from Virgin Money has received the expected backlash, with one tweet summing it up: “Punk is Dad.”
The legendary punk band that has eschewed an induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame because of all its corporatism has put its artwork on Virgin Money credit cards in the U.K.
One has the artwork for the single “Anarchy in the U.K.” and another has the artwork for the iconic album Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols.
Although it was not clear how much involvement surviving members John Lydon, Paul Cook and Steve Jones had with this endorsement, the band’s official Twitter account did send out an announcement notice.
The Sex Pistols were originally signed to Virgin Records, and Virgin Bank is part-owned by label founder Sir Richard Branson, so there is continuity. However, the bank put out a statement that rivals the tone-deafness of when Bank of America used U2’s “One” to celebrate its merger with MBNA.
“The Sex Pistols challenged convention and the established ways of thinking – just as we are doing today in our quest to shake up U.K. banking,” Michelle Green, the bank’s director of credit cards, said in a statement.
News blog Mediaite noted that the Pistols credit card could rival the Karl Marx Mastercard issued by German bank Sparkasse Chemnitz.
It was the result of an online survey where people could vote for one of 10 images for the card, and Marx was the “very clear winner.”