Image via YouTube

Any city officials worrying about their municipality's commitment to public transportation might consider doing what Taipei did and slap a porn star on what are essentially metro cards.

Granted, you should only do that if you are ready to welcome a sold out phenomenon that will also garner a tremendously polarizing issue along with it.

CNN’s Karla Cripps explains: “A set of sexy pre-paid swipe cards featuring Japanese adult video star Yui Hatano has proven to be both popular and controversial in Taipei. The drama all started Aug. 26, when Taiwanese card producer EasyCard announced that it had teamed up with the popular actress for a limited edition set of the stored value cards, used to pay for rides on the city's metro and buses and small convenience store purchases.”

Because you are a well-rounded person with a grasp on the human condition, you can probably guess what happened next. The cards sold like hot cakes. Rather, they sold like cards with an image of a porn star on them; namely, they sold well.

The report states that EasyCard made some 15,000 Yui Hatano cards available to the public at large, only to see that amount get gobbled up by curious travelers in four hours.

Consider how completely boring your respective metro card purchases have been in the past. Now imagine a city that rushes to procure one as if it were some new iPhone that comes with “Star Wars” designs. (That one’s free, Apple.)

Now as you might imagine, not everybody is happy in an around Taiwan’s capital, and we don’t just mean those who didn’t get the chance to procure what was reportedly a card with safe-for-work images.

TOMO News has images of the two cards, posted above, so you can judge for yourself:

The Taipei Times reports on the ensuing fallout behind the popular EasyCards. The report cites an official who has very real worry over the images and how it might affect children.

The report reads: “Humanistic Education Foundation Deputy Executive Director Hsieh Shu-mei said that despite the availability of ‘sensory stimulating’  pictures on the Internet, using an image of an actress in the adult video industry on EasyCards would exceed the appropriate level of knowledge that should be made available to children.”

Hatano has since released a statement on the matter, via CNN: “Just because I'm an adult video star, does that mean I can't participate in charity activities and contribute to society? Can't I use action to repay the love for me from Taiwan?”

Regardless, there is now fervor for public transportation in Taiwan—at least the public transportation’s cards.

While this has caused uproar among officials and locals, we have to think this is just the first of many ‘limited edition’ cards that just may spark and interest in riding the city’s public transport.   

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