Peloton "The Gift That Gives Back" Advertisement

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About

The Peloton "The Gift That Gives Back" Advertisement, also known as The Peloton Ad, refers to a viral commercial for a stationary exercise bike by the technology company Peloton. The advertisement features a woman receiving a Peloton bike for Christmas from her husband and a series of vlogs by her about her exercise regiment. Many online mocked the video, focusing on the woman's attitude about receiving an exercise bike from her husband, which many found to be a passive-aggressive insult about her appearance.

Origin

On November 12th, 2019, Peloton uploaded the commercial "The Gift That Gives Back" to Twitter.^[3] On November 21st, 2019, Peloton uploaded the commercial "The Gift That Gives Back" to YouTube. Within two weeks, the video received more than 600,000 views (shown below).

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On November 25th, Twitter^[1] user @ClueHeywood tweeted, "Look I don’t want to be 'The Peloton Ad Guy' anymore but the newest commercial about the vlogging 116 lb woman’s YEARLONG fitness journey to becoming a 112 lb woman who says 'I didn’t realize how much this would change me' is just ri-god-damn-diculous. Come on." The tweet received more than 5,000 likes and 600 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

On November 30th, Twitter user @SamuelMoen posted the advertisement with the caption, "this ad is making me lose my goddamn mind." The post received more than 2 million views, 20,000 likes and 1,000 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

Following @SamuelMoen's share, the advertisement went viral on Twitter, as users continued to mock the commercial's narrative and subtext. On December 2nd, comedy writer Bess Kalb tweeted,^[2] "Sorry to shake things up but I'm excited to announce I'm throwing my hat in the ring and joining the presidential race and running on the single issue platform to jail everyone involved in the pitching, scripting, acting, shooting, and approval of the Peloton ad." The tweet received more than 16,000 likes and 1,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter user @edsbs tweeted, "I want the Peloton ad where someone piles clothes on it for a year and takes pictures of the pile’s growth and feels just fine about it." The tweet received more than 5,000 likes and 500 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

On December 2nd, comedian Eva Victor posted a video parody of the commercial, in which she mocks the implication of giving a loved one an exercise bike, which they see as a passive-aggressive insult toward one's weight. The post received more than 2.5 million views, 100,000 likes and 22,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Several media outlets reported on the reaction to the commercial, including Business Insider,^[4] The Today Show,^[5] NBC,^[6] Vice,^[7] HuffPost^[8] and more.