For those who missed it, Tuesday’s Morning Briefing featured a story about Peloton’s Christmas ad and its overwhelming creep factor. Stop the video of the ad almost anywhere, and the poor woman in it looks like she’s reading a cue card in an ISIS hostage video.
For better or worse, the backlash has kept the Peloton name in the news for a few days in a week otherwise dominated by political news. After a couple of days of being relentlessly mocked on social media, the company defended the ad.
‘Our holiday spot was created to celebrate that fitness and wellness journey. ‘While we’re disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial, we are encouraged by — and grateful for — the outpouring of support we’ve received from those who understand what we were trying to communicate.’ According to the publication, the company shared a series of emails from fans of the ad who supported the message.
Nice spin, but the outpouring wasn’t as positive as the company would have you believe.
So many people were outraged that stocks in the company plummeted, leading some investors to demand the company pull the advertisement. Peloton shares lost 10% of its value, which was the biggest shift in the company’s value in more than two months.
Justin Patterson, an analyst at Raymond James, told Bloomberg that the advertisement would likely be pulled, and the company will recover after the controversy blows over.
One of the more humorous aspects of this brouhaha is that it is all about a consumer product that most people can’t afford. The bike itself costs over $2000 and there is a monthly subscription for classes on top of that. If Peloton just sells three or four more bikes this Christmas, it’ll be jst fine.
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