Virgin Money is introducing a Sex Pistols MasterCard in the UK. As far as I can tell it’s the basic Virgin Money product, with an optional Sex Pistols skin, rather than a separate offering of its own.

There’s something terribly ironic about this, sort of like the Karl Marx MasterCard from Sparkasse bank (“I don’t always seize the means of production from the bourgeoisie, but when I do, I prefer the Marx MasterCard.” or “There are some things money can’t buy. Especially if you abolish all private property.”).

As The Guardian put it,

They railed against consumerism, but the Sex Pistols will now be helping to oil the wheels of the capitalist machine as the band’s name and artwork are to feature on a range of credit cards.

John Lyndon, of course, sang the line “Your future dream is a shopping scheme” and indeed now it is.

Virgin Money says this allows consumers ‘to put a little rebellion in their pocket’

In launching these cards, we wanted to celebrate Virgin’s heritage and difference. The Sex Pistols challenged convention and the established ways of thinking – just as we are doing today in our quest to shake up UK banking.

Like Sapphire Preferred and other cards now in the US like the Citi AAdvantage MasterCard, the cards have name, number, and expiration date on the back and now raised numbers.

Here’s Richard Branson, who owns 35% of Virgin Money, talking about signing the Sex Pistols 38 years ago and appropriating their imagery for banking services.