CULT indoor bike brand Peloton is reeling after more than £1billion was knocked off its share price following backlash at its “sexist” Christmas ad. The jaw-dropping commercial – featuring a wife given an exercise machine by her husband – went viral for all the wrong reasons last week. Critics said the slender wife looked desperate […]
CULT indoor bike brand Peloton is reeling after more than £1billion was knocked off its share price following backlash at its “sexist” Christmas ad.
The jaw-dropping commercial – featuring a wife given an exercise machine by her husband – went viral for all the wrong reasons last week.
Critics said the slender wife looked desperate to please her husband and “terrified” at the pressure to keep slim.
They compared the ad to dystopian TV series Black Mirror or even a hostage video, and suggested the fictional woman should flee her abusive marriage.
The worldwide storm sent shares in Peloton Interactive Inc tumbling 15 per cent in three days.
At one point the company’s value had plunged $1.5billion, although it recovered slightly.
Peloton’s $2,245 (£1,900) stationary bikes and $4,295 (£3,600) treadmills have soared in popularity in the past two years.
Interactive screens lets users join spin classes online – for an extra $40-a-month subscription.
Celeb fans are said to include P Diddy, David Beckham, Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Peloton said it was “disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial”, which was meant to “celebrate fitness and wellbeing”.
It added: “We are encouraged by — and grateful for — the outpouring of support we’ve received from those who understand what we were trying to communicate.”
But Ash Bendelow, managing director of ad agency Brave, described it as “cringe, old-fashioned and tone deaf”.
He told the Guardian: “It reminds us of the ‘seven tips for keeping your man’ notions from the 1950s, rather than where society is today in 2019.”
The ad, called The Gift That Gives Back, shows a woman who gets a bike keeping a video diary of her workouts which she shows her husband the following Christmas.
Following the backlash, the actor who plays the husband said he’d received a wave of abuse and been called a “symbol of the patriarchy.”
And the actress who plays “Peloton Wife” was hired for a cheeky gin advert, showing the same woman knocking back cocktails to drown her sorrows after apparently leaving her husband.
The loss-making New York company’s stock launch in October was a disaster as shares fell 14 per cent on the first day.
But is stock then rose dramatically to a total market value of more than $9billion.
Its share price today of $33.10 is still 35 per cent up on a month ago.
