Canadian money: too sexy for this focus group

Canadian money: not known for being sexy.

But Canada's new bank notes "may give you a little more bang for your buck," the Canadian Press cheekily reports.

The Bank of Canada will next month release into circulation new plastic polymer $100 bills, followed by new $50 bills in March, which have a range of security features making them harder to fake.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation says the bills are also recyclable, and two to three times more resistant to tearing. Polymer bank notes have been used in Australia for years.

But focus groups saw much more in the new Canadian bills than just some extra security features, according to internal bank documents obtained under Canada's Access to Information Act.

Worried about Canadians seeing "unintended images" on the bills, the bank commissioned focus groups to spot "potential controversies," according to the Canadian Press.

Most of the focus groups thought a transparent window on the bank notes resembled a woman's curvy body. A kinky-minded focus group in Vancouver thought a DNA strand on the $100 note was "a sex toy (i.e., sex beads)."

Others didn't like the renderings of the former Canadian prime ministers whose heads appear on the bills: former Prime Minister Robert Borden was said to look cross-eyed, and his mustache unkempt. 

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The bills underwent some changes after the focus group feedback, a Bank of Canada spokeswoman told the Canadian Press.

But the bank wasn't about to alter the plastic polymer the notes are made from, despite focus groups describing the new bills as looking like "Monopoly money." 

A totally unsexy but informative video about Canada's new Monopoly money: