MySpace

Citigroup — the mega-bank that managed its own finances so badly that it has required three taxpayer bailouts totaling at least $45 billion so far — is preaching fiscal responsibility to young people.



This week, the company began pitching a Visa credit card to MySpace users called Citi Forward, with the slogan, “Actions speak louder than words.”

Cardholders receive bonus points with each charge, which can be used for concerts, movie premieres and music downloads. They also earn points worth a buck or so for good deeds, such as donating canned goods to the hungry.

If consumers pay on time for three months in a row, they can qualify for a quarter-point reduction in the card’s 14.24 percent interest rate, with rates going down as much as two percentage points after two years of on-time payments. On the other hand, a late payment quickly doubles the interest rate to 29.99 percent, according to the card’s terms and conditions.

Citi and MySpace have not just created a credit card, however. They are marketing a way of life, complete with a manifesto:

“I am Generation Forward.

I look not backward, but forward.

I reject the selfish ways of the past.

The environment, the economy, our very security …

They’re the consequences of people not thinking about consequences.

The world I’m inheriting makes me different.

I’m not afraid of what might happen, but energized by what could happen.

For my generation, forward isn’t just a word.

It’s a way of life.

I believe actions speak louder than words.

I believe in the power of making good visible.

I believe in sharing the wealth, spreading the peace, helping the

unfortunate, recycling, alternative energy sources, exercise, eating

healthy, giving back, spending wisely and setting a good example.

I believe that if bad things happen when I do bad,

good things should happen when I do good.

I believe in good design, keeping my word, paying on time, using the

Internet instead of paper and fiscal responsibility.

I am Generation Forward.

I’m the first generation to have a credit card named after me.

Imagine! A credit card that rewards you for doing the right thing.

I am Generation Forward.”

As the tech-news blog ReadWriteWeb wrote Wednesday, “How much more surreal could this get?”

Tracy Akselrud, the MySpace spokeswoman for the Citi partnership, declined to discuss the relationship.

Jeanette Volpi, Citi’s spokeswoman for the partnership, said the bank’s research showed that customers wanted a card that rewarded them for good behavior. “We are giving customers want they want,” she said.

Ms. Volpi refused to address the obvious disconnect in the marketing message: Citi is telling the younger generation to act responsibly even though the old folks running the nation’s banks are no models of financial rectitude.

Just imagine if Citi were to follow its own rules and “set a good example” for those young MySpace users.

Instead of simply taking a second and third government handout after it blew through the first one, Citi could pay back the taxpayers at 29.99 percent interest, the same rate it will charge MySpace cardholders who miss a payment.

Instead of keeping those unearned billions in bonuses, Citi’s executives could “believe in sharing the wealth” and give some money back to shareholders, who have seen their stock plunge to $1 a share.

Instead of getting more government cash as they fritter away ever more of the bank’s capital, Citi’s bankers could earn points towards rides on the company jet as they make timely repayments of the taxpayers’ money.

What about it? Nah. That responsibility stuff is for the chumps of Generation Forward.