Amex has a ‘Black’ card that all the rappers get giddy over. So Visa, in its attempt to move itself from Toyota Corolla status up to a BMW status, has come up with a ‘Black Card’. They call it being exclusive. How exclusive is it? Not very.

Here is the ad:

Not very exclusive...and a waste of money.

So where does the 1% come from? They promise to limit it to 1% of the USA population. That’s about 3 million people.

If they get 3 million people to accept this card, their marketing team will be garlanded in gold and bathed in caviar. It will never happen.

Why? Let’s analyze their marketing.

1. To catch your attention, they have a pretty woman say she likes being in the 1%. But she is a no-name model/actress/whatever. Her IMDB shows her as doing NOTHING. Could they not get anyone better? With better name recognition?

2. 1% of the population is 3 million. That is a huge amount for a card. It also shows that they prey on people’s ignorance to apply for this card.

3. Exclusive Rewards Program: They offer 1% cashback or airline points. Nothing exclusive about that.

4. Patent Pending Carbon Card: This is the biggest joke of all. Patent Pending means nothing, it just means someone scribbled on a sheet of paper and sent $1,800 to the patent office. Anyone who thinks this is cool is a total tool.

Anyone who ponies up $500 to get this card, should have their brain examined.