When kids play in the street and break windows in the neighborhood, it probably means their parents are to blame. The kids themselves are definitely to blame. If you are the person who lives in the house with the broken windows, however, you are not to blame.
But if you reward delinquents for their crimes, the implication is that the kids have not done anything seriously wrong–and you have. The criminals, then, will probably continue their path to adulthood as social parasites.
Apparently, Citibank thinks that is a good thing.* Or worse yet, it thinks that potential customers will think so. How else would you explain their endorsement of vandalism?
Paying criminals is the equivalent of giving in to blackmail. Unlike a certain Mediterranean country, at least the guy in the commercial is not giving the kids big chunks of his front yard.
Still, modern society seems to have forgotten that the carrot and stick method requires using the stick, as well. One day we will run out of carrots.
*Embedding is disabled on this video for some reason, hence the link instead of an embedded video.