In reading the usual business publications over the weekend, I was surprised to see the juxtaposition of articles – almost every one – talking about the failing economy and exactly how bad things are, and ads for luxury items that an increasingly shrinking number of us can possibly afford.

True to an earlier post, luxury items are now being touted as “economical” – even private jets!  But one ad really caught my eye.  It was for the Visa Black Card.  The card is “limited to only 1% of US residents to ensure the highest caliber of personalized service.”

A few questions:

• If it’s so exclusive, why advertise?
• If you want to advertise, why in Forbes, Fortune and Business Week?  I mean, I get those magazine and surely I don’t for the card.
• With shrinking credit sure to hit the average consumer as it has business, why introduce a new card?  Surely, a plain old credit card will soon be exclusive enough.

I think if you answer one question, everything else makes sense.  One percent isn’t THAT exclusive.  If you say there are 250,000,000 people in the US, 1% equals 2.5 million.  Remember: the ad said “residents” and not “residences.”  They include every person in country.  And, they don’t say anything about required income or net worth.

So, what Visa is doing is the good old “limited time offer” trick. Act now, and you’ll get a free set of Ginsu knives, free shipping and – for the next 10 callers only –a second card at NO EXTRA CHARGE!

It’s interesting to see that luxury items aren’t going away; they’re just beingpositioned differently.  I wonder how long that will last.