Credit card companies, it’s time to move the swipe strip from the top of the card to the bottom.

It shouldn’t take much to convince them to do this, since all of their ads show that’s clearly what they want.

Check out this shot seven seconds into an American Express ad:

This one, also at seven seconds for MasterCard:

And this, at the 44-second mark for Visa:

Now pull out your wallet and select any card of your choice.  See a discrepancy?  If you swipe the card like they do in the commercials, it won’t work.

Maybe they would have to move where the raised numbers appear, but it doesn’t seem like it would be that tough to design a card that would both be functional and look the way they want in a commercial.

Imagine if Pizza Hut had commercials with people eating slices from the side:

That would just be silly.