A Virgin Trains avocado offer has infuriated some millennials who accused the rail firm of patronising them.
From now until 20 March, Virgin Trains is offering those aged 26-30 a third off their journey as long as they present an avocado at the station.
The deal applies to the Virgin Trains West Coast line only and tickets have to be purchased at a station.
The company said it was a "light-hearted" way of helping people who missed out on one of the 10,000 new millennial railcards that went on sale and quickly sold out on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Virgin Trains said the response to Avocard on social media had been "overwhelmingly positive" and that there were "three times more positive engagements than negative".
But after tweeting the offer on Tuesday afternoon, Virgin Trains received comments from frustrated young people who accused the rail firm of being patronising and condescending.
Tom Magness wrote: “Hilarious, why don’t you lower the prices of your disgraceful rail fares rather than make fun of the people who have to pay them?”
While Charlie commented: “Is this some kind of weird making fun of millennials week?”
And Miranda Langford said: “Sure, being unable to afford something as basic as travelling to work due to low wages and the privatisation of public services is so hilarious. Absolutely vile, please delete this.”
Lauren tweeted: "Genuinely thought this was a joke... Shame on you Virgin Trains. This is patronising and belittling. Fine, offer the discount to those without railcards, but the presentation of an avocado is completely unnecessary."
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Nina Pullman added: "Hey @VirginTrains how about just making peak train fairs accessible for normal people rather than patronising us with an #avocard. Also what are you going to do with all those avos people hand in?"
But other people seemed to see the funny side with some promising to take up Virgin Trains on the offer.
Another person described it as "outstanding" marketing.
A spokesman for Virgin Trains told the Standard: “The response to the Avocard on social media has been overwhelming positive. There have been three times more positive engagements than negative. We want to help any of our customers who missed out on the millennial railcard – so we decided to offer them the same discounted fares in a light-hearted way.”
Only 10,000 millennial railcards were available as part of a trial with demand so high that the website crashed. The railcard offers those aged between 26 and 30 a third of most fares.
Despite the website issues, the card sold out by the end of the day. The National Railcards website apologised for the problems.