Exercise machine brand Peloton made quite the boo-boo with their tone-deaf holiday commercial this year - and people are pissed.
With big winter holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah right around the corner, you're probably trying to figure out all the gifts you want to get your friends, family members, and significant others. You're also probably being flogged down by dozens of holiday ads from brands urging you that their products are the best gifts ever. Here's a little life pro-tip: Do not get whoever you're gifting a frickin' exercise machine unless they specifically asked for it. Why, you care to ask? Well, the Peloton holiday advert is a great reason. The commercial features a husband surprising his wife with a Peloton, an overpriced exercise machine. What ensues is some miserable social commentary about the fitness and beauty standards we still, as we come to the close of a decade, expect women to sadly conform to.
In the advert that is currently going viral, the wife wakes up on Christmas morning to the Peloton exercise bicycle sitting in the middle of her hallway. The wife, by the way, looks like she could walk straight onto a runway. No, seriously - she's visibly many sizes smaller than the average American woman and could probably pass off as one of those Victoria's Secret angels. Not that that should be the yardstick, of course. Nonetheless, she begins documenting her workouts and fitness journey vlog-style, that is, recording herself on a video camera while using the Peloton bike. By the end of the 30-second ad, viewers have seen her wake up at 6 am to complete her workouts and exercise five days a week without fail for a whole year. The video ends with her and her husband watching the vlog diary together on a TV, sitting on the couch. She says in the final vlog, "A year ago, I didn’t realize how much this would change me. Thank you."
And honestly, what in the actual heck? The videos in her vlog diary definitely looked like a cry for help in some sort of Black Mirror-dystopian film. The ad seems to get pretty much everything wrong; from the fact that the husband surprises her with the gift, to the helpless and desperate look on the wife's face throughout the whole experience, and even how their daughter appears excited for the tone-deaf gift, Peloton literally made the worst holiday ad of the year. Thankfully, other people were able to see how ridiculous the whole thing was and call the exercise machine brand out.
We all need to treasure the things that bring us together as a nation, as a people. Collectively hating on this Peloton ad is that thing. pic.twitter.com/UQtUU4CCQt
— Renee Klahr (@reneeklahr) December 2, 2019
Taking to Twitter, many viewers posted sarcastic comments and jibes. Siraj Hashmi tweeted, "Nothing says 'maybe you should lose a few pounds' like gifting your already rail-thin life partner a Peloton." "So sweet," Jess Dweck wrote sardonically. "My husband was inspired by the Peloton ad to get me a pair of pants in a child’s medium and a handwritten note that says, 'Don’t f*cking touch me till you can fit into these.'" Matt Fernandez added, "That Peloton commercial would be better if at the end you found out she used it to train hard every day so that the following year, she could beat the sh*t out of her husband for buying her an exercise bike for Christmas." That should have been the real ending of this ad. Peloton, it's almost 2020. Come on. Do better.
when my husband gets me a Peleton for Christmas ........ pic.twitter.com/Z2d3ewMhPu
— Eva Victor (@evaandheriud) December 2, 2019