By: Chuck Miller
Music, Uncategorized

Filthy Lucre, indeed: The Sex Pistols on credit cards

If there was ever a music group that defined anger and uprising and the very heart of punk rock music, it was certainly the Sex Pistols.

Okay, does that refresh your memory?

Good.

The image of the Sex Pistols were of a band rebelling against anything and everything – class structure, the monarchy, all of that.  This is a group who, upon being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, refused to attend and suggested that the organization itself was, in classy terms, “urine in wine.”

This is the same group who refused to license their most iconic track, “Anarchy in the U.K.,” for use in an all-encompassing punk rock CD collection.

This is the same group who became the voice of a generation.  A voice for the disenfranchised.  A voice for the oppressed.  A voice for –

MasterCard?

Yeah.

Scope this.

This is not a mock-up.  Virgin Money, a credit card company in the U.K., has announced a line of Sex Pistols-themed credit cards, including one based on the artwork from their 7″ single “Anarchy in the U.K.,” and another featuring the cover art from their LP Never Mind the Bullocks.

Wow.  Am I seeing correctly?

I’d better check the Sex Pistols’ official Twitter account.  Yes, they have one.

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I’m going to need some eyebleach on this one.

I mean, I shouldn’t get so grumpy about this.  Rock stars have shilled for products for ages.  But the Sex Pistols?  The group that sang that “your future dream is a shopping spree” and “God Save the Queen // cos’ tourists have money // and our figurehead // is not what she seems” is now allowing their iconography to be attached to credit card artwork?

Man, there’s something totally wrong with this.  But at least I can rest assured that if this is the only time Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols are tied into the commercial establishment, I can live with it.  I mean, it’s not like Johnny Rotten has ever made television commercials for, oh let’s say… butter…

And it’s not like the Sex Pistols actually sold one of their tracks for a home video game series – to the point where they might have re-recorded that very track to gain a little extra filthy lucre… no, not really…

So in the end, what’s a few credit cards amongst friends?  What’s that old saying?  “Don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it in twelve monthly installments at 24.99% interest”?