Sorry, cash-dependent customers, you’re using a dirty instrument.

What is MasterCard‘s marketing pitch these days? Calling cash use a “dirty habit,” as it did in a marketing video released this week. We’re not kidding. MC’s sullying (sorry, we couldn’t resist) the use of cash, because, uh, plastic cards are perfectly sanitary after passing through hundreds of magstripe readers and the hands of waiters and cashiers? Yes, cash is handled by lots of people. But there are also many million of cash-dependent customers out there who are unable to get their mitts on some of MasterCard’s plastic even if they wanted to. Unless it’s a prepaid card, of course.

The video is part of a larger study (PDF) by MasterCard that ties into a larger strategy to deliver a cashless future to the world. The study focuses on Europe, as is clear from the video. Some European countries, notably Germany, use cash far more than is done in the U.S. That may be the reason this odd video exists.