Peloton’s Christmas advert for its range of bikes has seriously backfired as social media lit up to accuse the company of sexism.
The American company sells stationary exercise bikes with massive interactive touch-screens, where users can pay to subscribe to classes that are streamed at select times of the day.
The commercial in question follows a woman, whose husband buys her a Peloton machine as a gift.
Throughout the clip we track the woman through her progress using the bike, until finally, she gives the video of her journey to her husband the following Christmas as a present, saying how much she’s grown as a person because of it.
Seems like a pretty standard advertorial line to take to convince people to buy your product during the busy festive rush, right?
Wrong! Critics on social media absolutely eviscerated the clip when it dropped, many labelling it as sexist.
Outraged viewers flocked to Twitter to share their disdain for the advert and its message – basically, the woman’s husband wants her to lose weight, so she does.
Screen-shotting a picture, one critic said: ‘That face you make when you have to videotape yourself exercising to prove to your husband that you’re making every effort to (checks notes) look thin for him.’
Another added: ‘That Peloton ad is straight trash […] here’s your Christmas gift which is an exercise bike so you can be three pounds thinner.’
‘Besides the obvious,’ one other said. ‘Why is the woman “nervous” to get on a stationary bike?’
That is a very good question indeed…
The basic version of the bike retails at £1,990 and the app to use with it is a further £19.50 a month (or £234 a year), so it’s not exactly a cheap gift if you get it wrong.
Viewers weren’t impressed with the sentiment of the ad, with one user who had been in a focus group for it saying: ‘I was in a focus group for Peloton and HATED all the ads but their one ad featuring a woman was a s***ty sexist trope in a dumb GIRLBOSS kind of way so color me surprised they ended up with this nonsense and ran with it.’
Another added: ‘Lmaooo the sexist black mirror episode peloton ad knocked 10% off the company’s value’ after Peloton’s share values dropped following the backlash.
If the advert has whet your appetite to discover what Peloton is actually all about, however, we’ve got you covered,
Earlier in the year, we shared how to become a Peloton instructor.
Leanne Haniaby was a professional dancer for 12 years before turning to become a digitized PT on the exercise bike’s interactive screens.
She said: ‘All of the classes I teach actually have riders in the studio. Most cycling instructors are teaching to a room of around 50 people max, however as Peloton instructors we reach a much larger audience, often thousands of riders at a time, which is amazing.
‘Peloton allows you to personalise your workout; you can choose the instructor, the music you want to listen to and you can access an instructor-led class at any time of the day, be it live or an on-demand ride.
‘Riders also have access to Peloton Digital – thousands of classes across categories such as cycling, running, walking, bootcamp, strength, stretching, cardio, yoga and meditation.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted Peloton for comment.
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