Virgin Trains Advertises Discount for Millennials Carrying Avocados

Hear that? It’s millions of millennials reeling from the horrific insult handed to them by Virgin Trains. Yup, the train operating group has destroyed a generation with, wow, a really clever advert that offers a discount to them if they show an avocado while travelling. Burn!!!!!!!!!

According to the Evening Standard, Virgin Trains shared the advert yesterday in response to National Rail’s sold-out “Millennial Railcard.” The discounted travel card for 26- to 30-year-olds offering 30 percent off travel was only available to 10,000 people across the country.

After the huge demand for the National Rail railcard, the Virgin Media comms team (just a funny bunch of dudes), put out an advert offering millennials—you know, that stupid generation with no financial stability, little chance of home ownership, and even shakier job prospects—a similar deal, as long as they showed an avocado while travelling. The advert read, “Did you miss out on the chance to get your hands on the 26-30 railcard? Fear not! After such high demand, we wanted to make sure that the 'Millennial Railcard' was available to anyone who wanted it. Introducing the #avocard, our very own temporary railcard," along with a picture of an, um, avocado.

Understandably, many were confused at the offer. One Twitter user replied to Virgin Trains, saying, “This is bad and you should feel bad… How about drop the condescending marketing stunt?,” while another couldn’t seem to get the offer to work at London's Euston Station.

Now, I think the joke here is that, because millennials spend money on 50p avocados, we can’t afford a £78 return train from London to Manchester. So, it’s funny, you see? Because we should be able to afford necessary public transport. But we can’t. Because avocados.

Virgin, here’s an idea: maybe just … make your train fares affordable?