MySpace is announcing today that it is partnering with Citi to offer its users a co-branded credit card. We expect to start seeing cards flashed at retail outlets by 99-year olds named “bongkillah,” or what have you. MySpace is a lot of things, and despite Facebook’s formidable attack it remains wildly popular, but an institution of trust and responsibility MySpace is not!
That’s exactly what the company is aiming to become, though, with this new partnership. The “Generation Forward” campaign will reward credit card users with music downloads and other tokens of thanks when they make “responsible choices” like pay their bills on time, donate to homeless shelters and promise to be nice to small animals. How much more surreal could this get?
We’re all for the webification of financial data, with proper privacy and data portability steps of course. We’re big fans of some of the personal finance apps available. We really want to see innovation in this space and even some of the paternalistic shoving towards social responsibility that MySpace is engaging in seems like a good idea.
This is MySpace, though. It’s got a lot going for it, but a “responsibility based” MySpace credit card sounds like an Octuplet Mom co-branded condom to us. This just seems too far afield from the brand that made MySpace what it is and we expect the credit cards to be something that more people make jokes about than use.
