Amex: do not do this

I read this prompt with a tinge of horror. The mere thought of marketing credit to people in their 20′s with rewards incentives for nightlife and jet-setting seems very un-”punk” (punk roots in early adolescence being the indisputable foundation of coolness among all white Americans). It also reminds me of when I turned 18 and went to college and received a barrage of pre-approved credit cards seeking to plummet me into to college-incurred debt. Yet the more I think about this, the more promising it seems.

I fly a lot, and as I grow older, I dine a lot more frequently at reputable restaurants.  I also have no credit to speak of, due mostly to unclaimed and untaxed income. This card sounds kinda… good. You have to pay it off each month as well, so its not some totally evil trap. I have actually intended on getting a card and establishing a line of credit so that when I am thirty-five and my girlfriends are  talking about buying houses or whatever I wont seem like  some train-hopping desperado.  So that is the idea to market: Have fun, pay it off each month, earn credit, and get tons of bonuses. Airfare is huge. Everyone I know in NY flies nearly once a month, or at least once a season. I feel like responsible borrowing and charging is the way forward for people scared to take out credit cards. As much as we all hate the credit and banking institutions for lending so much on an economy that was designed to eventually slow down, we have ourselves to blame too. We are the irresponsible borrowers, even if we were encouraged by advertising…..

I say make the card seem un-foolish. Make it seem like we are just being ourselves and living our lives and getting benefits, not signing a deal that will doom us to some eventual bankruptcy… because I don’t think it will. Paying a card off each month is a good deal.

As far as which artists or celebrities should be used to advertise this….. I really dont know how to answer that. Celebrity worship is foolish and uncool, its for middle-class tabloid readers. Even if friends of mine read tabloids for sick pleasure, we certainly don’t aspire to be like  celebrities. Maybe profile normal people like photographers. People who work really hard. Recording studio engineers, professional drummers/backup musicians, chefs, dancers, young TV producers, entrepeneurs in their 20′s and early 30′s. If you use some indie-celebrity it will cause shockwaves of hate among my friends and larger network, though perhaps my friends don’t represent a considerable demographic, the waves will still be there and perhaps trickle down/spread outward.  Anyone with a large cultural presence would not likely want to risk it by promoting a credit card, however we are seeing the limits of people’s dignity in the face of advertising these days.

Make it seem like this: Being cool doesn’t mean having bad credit. Now is the time. Here are other people that have credit and get rewards to do all the cool stuff they do anyway. Possibly avoid network television- as it represents the sinking abyss of programmed culture. Advertise on more intellectual websites- music, art, news. As artists we look to these corporations as patrons, and I for one am not upset when I watch an XLR8R TV episode and have to watch a commercial first because I know that its the only way that the segment even exists. Think like a patron. This is essentially a good product. Don’t make it seem like its for the bottle service weekender crowd- because that feels like another trap.  Celebrities/nightclub bottle service/rap music video/hot chicks/ arrogant douchebags/etc. symbolize falsehoods and traps- something which is already associated with credit cards. I say circumvent that by all means possible.