Controversial advertisements from this past year have ranged from a Gillette commercial to that notorious Colin Kaepernick ad that ended up winning an Emmy Award. The most contentious commercials have touched on hot-button issues such as the #MeToo movement, racism, and police brutality.
Now, the latest round of outrage is about an exercise bike.
In a new 30-second clip for American exercise equipment company Peloton, a woman walks downstairs on Christmas morning with her hand over her eyes. “Are you ready?” her husband asks. When she removes her hand, she smiles and gasps at the gift in front of her.
“A Peloton bike?” she exclaims. Yes, a Peloton bike: A $2,245 stationary bike that requires a $39/month membership so the user can access livestreaming and on-demand classes while exercising from the comfort of home.
While Tal Bachman’s 1998 hit She’s So High plays in the background, the woman starts her first workout with a face so apprehensive that it prompted some onlookers to question whether this was a workout or a hostage situation. For the rest of the commercial, the young, thin woman spends the next year using the bike, documenting her workouts with her phone, and presenting the video to her husband the following Christmas. “Thank you,” she gushes at the end of the video.
Peloton executives likely had no idea the commercial would go viral — and not in a good way. Exercise turned out to be one of this year’s most controversial subjects, as commenters all over social media called the ad sexist and complained that the man should not have bought his wife an exercise bike. Vice called it, “One woman’s desperate journey into wellness hell.”
It’s unclear in the commercial whether the woman had asked for a Peloton bike or if it was a cruel hint by her husband. Still, the wife seems happy enough to have it. Yet, the backlash was so intense that Peloton stock tumbled, dropping 9% in one day and eliminating close to $942 million in market value.
“Our holiday spot was created to celebrate that fitness and wellness journey,” a representative for Peloton said in an email responding to the fiasco, according to CNBC. “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.”
Whatever Peloton was trying to communicate, plenty of folks see the bike as something nice and expensive. Comedian Whitney Cummings said to forget the haters, tweeting, “anyone can get me a Peloton for Christmas.”
