Posted on 12/19/2019 8:11:27 AM PST by Kaslin
We are fast approaching the end of 2019, and as we close the book on a turbulent decade, nothing summarizes the state of our culture and our unhealthy relationship with contrived outrage quite like the Peloton ad controversy and the wave of hysteria that has followed in its wake. Imagine if we could channel that outrage instead into addressing our nation's obesity crisis.
If you are not familiar with the ad or simply cannot believe that America -- land of the free, home of the brave -- is full of adults who are distressed over an exercise bike, a quick Google search will fill you in on the situation. You will also find columnists in highly read publications and joyless hordes on social media claiming to be offended by Peloton's latest ad, in which a husband dares to gift his already-slim wife a Peloton stationary bike for Christmas.
The commercial has been described as sexist, tone deaf, body-shaming and reflective of outdated social norms -- with every new critique against it more fantastical than the last. The backlash against the ad has been so severe that the exercise equipment company lost nearly a billion dollars in market value since the spot's release.
This widespread hysteria is beyond absurd on many levels.
First, it serves as yet another shining example of one of our society's worst qualities: the endless search for conflict in any and everything. It highlights our uncanny ability to turn a positive into a negative, a neutral into a catastrophe. What surely started as a creative and unassuming idea in Peloton's marketing department has been stripped of its intention and extrapolated to fit the narratives and agendas of radical extremists.
Second, the people claiming the ad is sexist are actually doing their cause more harm than good. Making much ado about nothing and targeting a company in bad faith is not an effective way to move the needle on any agenda. It inserts offense into an otherwise harmless scenario and detracts from legitimate claims of sexism that surface. Fake news falsely alleging prejudice only serves to create an air of skepticism around these types of accusations; it is akin to crying wolf.
Instead of manufacturing dissent about a milquetoast fitness ad, imagine if those screaming the loudest dedicated a fraction of the same energy to combating the country's alarming and rising obesity epidemic. It is now estimated that 71% of Americans are overweight, with nearly 40% qualifying as obese.
Americans should be cheering for the growth of Peloton and its clear benefits rather than waging a search-and-destroy campaign against the company for a trivial commercial.
One positive aspect of this whole ordeal was Peloton's early response to those claiming to be offended. Peloton did not grovel and capitulate and apologize to the mob like so many others before them. Instead, they issued a blanket sorry-you-feel-that-way statement.
Second, the people claiming the ad is sexist are actually doing their cause more harm than good. Making much ado about nothing and targeting a company in bad faith is not an effective way to move the needle on any agenda. It inserts offense into an otherwise harmless scenario and detracts from legitimate claims of sexism that surface. Fake news falsely alleging prejudice only serves to create an air of skepticism around these types of accusations; it is akin to crying wolf.
Instead of manufacturing dissent about a milquetoast fitness ad, imagine if those screaming the loudest dedicated a fraction of the same energy to combating the country's alarming and rising obesity epidemic. It is now estimated that 71% of Americans are overweight, with nearly 40% qualifying as obese.
Americans should be cheering for the growth of Peloton and its clear benefits rather than waging a search-and-destroy campaign against the company for a trivial commercial.
One positive aspect of this whole ordeal was Peloton's early response to those claiming to be offended. Peloton did not grovel and capitulate and apologize to the mob like so many others before them. Instead, they issued a blanket sorry-you-feel-that-way statement.
EXACTLY.
Fake, Phony, Frauds.
The immortal words of Bob Grant.
Today our society lives by them.
“...they issued a blanket sorry-you-feel-that-way statement.”
Advertisers, Retailers, Shop Owners, etc.
Take note! An excellent way to handle it. If you give these dopes an inch, they’ll take a mile - and run you out of town on a rail!
IIRC, their stock dropped nearly $900MM when this started. Love to find out which fat feminist cow started this.
Then the sexist argument goes away- he didn't give it to her b/c she was fat, but rather b/c she wanted it.
I'm not a big Peloton fan but I do respect their response to the ad. The reaction was really over the top. FWIW, I saw the ad during a sports event over the weekend so it's still running in its original form.
“...Take note! An excellent way to handle it. If you give these dopes an inch, they’ll take a mile - and run you out of town on a rail!....”
Exactly. We’ve seen it with the federal income tax. But even a better example is we’ve seen it with the sodomites. They only wanted “to come out of the closet” so they said....now, they force their crap down our throats at every opportunity and rule over the country.
We are mentally unfit because this new multi billion dollar IPO business model is entirely based on selling $3,000 stationary bikes and a $40 per month subscription.
I think Ryan Reynolds did them a huge favor by immediately using the actress in an Aviation Gin ad. I saw a lot more chatter about the Gin ad and I saw a significant drop off in people talking about Peloton. From my perspective, it all just disappeared. Which is good. I think the company didn’t make a big deal about it and that certainly helped.
It’s not “WE”; it’s “THEY”.
Here is what cracks me up.
All of this scandal involves one person who claims to be a mind-reader who has read the mind of a fictitious character played by an actress and the mind of a fictitious character played by an actor in a totally scripted/produced TV commercial where nothing all is real except the website you get on to purchase the product.
I saw the ad on Thanksgiving Day.
My very first thought was how skinny the wife was.
I made a comment about it and laughed about it.
Didn’t think about it again UNTIL reading articles about the “outrage”
I’m still laughing about it.
Well I for one am offended by everything. How dare all ya’ll! Let’s all be good communists.
There is so much today that idiots find some kind of offense from...It’s unbelievable....
Could you imagine the hysteria of today’s young people if they were subjected to advertisements from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s????
There would be mass suicides!!!LOL
It’s not like I have EVER seen a testimonial about a 300+ pound person give a testimonial about how Peloton took 100 pounds off of them.
Every single person I know that has one, about a dozen or so, was fit to begin with or at best put on 10-15 pounds over the winter/holidays when their only options for fitness were indoors. Now that weight gain is non-existent.
The classes are hard, the system/bike/subscription will start at $3,000 for the first year. It was designed for people with money, that were time constrained and fit to begin with.
I hadn’t even heard this was a thing until this post.
In agreement and I’ll add the late, great R.A.Heinlein’s comment; “Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite!” [Time Enough for Love 1973] For the younger FReepers here, Mrs. Grundy was an unseen character in Thomas Morton’s 1794 play “Speed the Plough” as a humorless arbiter of strict conventionality.
It is an interesting artifact of this age that opprobrium now flows more from the sophomoric young snowflakes than from self-appointed defenders of convention. A true reversal of mores and not as an improvement as both are intrusive, humorless dictators.
I don’t pay any attention to ads on TV...I just sit back and wait for the program to continue...
Anyone who wants to throw away a few thousand can just hire me. I can holler at them and make it much more personal than that machine that hollers the same exact thing at everyone who's dumb enough to bring it home.
What's worse than the wife's face at the beginning is that she (the script) says how much it improved her after a year. Really? I'm not seeing it. She was anorexic before and she's anorexic after the fictitious year.
Yet, the masses aren't complaining about the commercial with men asking each other for tampons.
LOL - this is the result of several decades of the education system focusing almost exclusively on ‘critical thinking’ with the exclusion of analytical thinking, creative thinking and several other thought processes. Pls see my article: ‘A Critique of Critical Thinking’ at my blog below my tagline.
Students have been indoctrinated for the past few decades to use only critical thinking, which, boiled down is nothing but fault-finding. So now we have a huge population of people whose only thought process is to find fault with whatever they see or hear. The concept of ‘understanding’ what they see and hear is abandoned for the simple reason that anything with a ‘fault’ is not worth understanding. . .it’s quite literally the only thought process a substantial percentage of our population knows. It is at the epicenter of the movement to dumb down the population and as you can see inoculates them them from the human capacity for exercising judgment.
I was truthful about not paying attention to commercials earlier...
Were you joking about this:
“...the commercial with men asking each other for tampons...”
Surely this can’t be real...
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