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.
PROMOTE HEALING: Thank You for posting the web link. I LOVED the commercial. THE POINT? Fix the problem, don’t punish the symptom. I agree, it would have even been better had the kids fixed what they had broken BUT the example was unconditional love…love that covers-heals a multitude of offenses. We need a higher standard than complaining: He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.(Proverbs 17:9) A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.(Proverbs 19:11) God Bless Israel and bring peace to Jerusalem in these troubled times.