I am 100% behind not placing blame on actors for this dystopic commercial. But on the flip side, why are actors given so much credit for good TV and movies? Are they really carrying these productions on their handsome shoulders? Or is it more like a restaurant, where we tip waitstaff (or not), but our experience is probably more controlled by a host of support staff, grunt work, and management?
So that right there is what my wife and I discussed. Based on some clues we extrapolated one of two back stories that might have been part of the script and made it make sense.
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They appeared to be living in a rather suburban/rural setting, we theorized that perhaps she had belonged to a cycle group or place that they now moved away from and this was a gift to get her back into something she enjoyed doing.
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She definitely seemed to be a career woman and we posited perhaps she used to be a cycling junkie and as their kid was now older she perhaps went back to school/work and no longer had time for cycling; this was a gift so she could do it on her time (which is a key selling point for Peleton).
Now these two possibilities would give some context to make the entire thing make more sense beyond what we got. But OFC the problem is we get none of that and it’s us merely speculating. The jackasses in the advertising and marketing group at Peleton could have been smarter and given a longer commercial online or given some backstory in the one we got, or just done something not so stupid and playing into a tired trope.
If your audience has to do mental gymnastics to make sense of your stuff…it’s bad advertising.
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Thanks for breaking it down. I watched it through just once and didn’t really take the time to consider all these nuances since it is an ad for a cultish luxury fitness good that I would never buy.
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Bad press is often good press, but I’m wondering if this is the case here. If your exercise brand becomes associated with abusive relationships and self-harming behavior, that might not be great for sales.
My initial reaction when I saw this ad was, “weird.” And then my skin started to crawl. When my wife saw it for the first time, she immediately said, “Was that real?”
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As I was reading this my thoughts immediately went toward what she went through, so thank you for bringing that up.
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Easy (and fun!) to sneer, yet I hear very sophisticated people credit actors for great lines. No idea that there’s a writer involved. Very (very!) occasionally, an actor does a memorable ad lib that stays in, but that’s the rare exception.
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They’re the public-facing part of the production, and it just takes a certain amount of talent and a pretty or at least unique physical appearance and training to connect successfully with the audience, especially through a screen. Don’t get me wrong: they’re nothing without all the behind-the-scenes crew, but they are a critical part none-the-less.
I learned about this the hard way when I was young. During the journalism career I mentioned above, I took a stab at on-air reporting. I was so uncomfortable doing it (and obviously so) that I decided it was best left to people who were more talented or at least more conventionally good-looking than I was.
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The ad wasn’t great, but I think the backlash was over amplified. I do agree with other posters however that some context could have made it much better, like a scene before the present where the wife complains that she doesn’t get to ride her bike anymore now that she has a kid that she just can’t leave at home for an hour long bike ride.
The internet went way overboard with the “He gave a possibly bad gift, must be an abuser, immediate divorce!” memes.
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Also, there’s a kid in the commercial just young enough to wink to women feeling pressured to lose baby weight after a pregnancy. Most people might not catch that, but the subtle reference won’t be lost on some women who’ve been in that situation.
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Even without interpreting the husband’s intentions, the main issues I find with the ad is that the woman seems to hate using the product they’re supposed to be promoting. She says she’s nervous the first time, for some reason she has to get up a 6am even though she doesn’t want to. They could have thrown up the slogan at the end “Peloton, the exercise bike you don’t want to ride, but you’re scared what might happen if you don’t.”
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Acting is hard, and a great actor can bring life to even the shittiest movie or TV show premise while a bad actor can ruin the greatest movie or TV show premise.
For instance, Street Fighter: the Movie is an objectively terrible film, but Raul Julia makes it watchable with his scenes alone.
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Agreed; they could have opened the commercial with a fake instagram feed of the woman biking and doing all kinds of ‘super-fit’ shit, something that shows it’s truly her passion, then cut to the surprise reveal Xmas morning scene.
Additionally they could have had her act consistently excited rather intimidated, and they could have shown her husband being ‘super supportive’ by getting his ass up and working out, too.
Hell, there could even have been “a twist” at the end, that he’d had his own Peloton all along, and she was secretly envious of it, but now she doesn’t have to be because she has her own.
There’s all sorts of changes they could have made that would have made a better, more effective ad.
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Intent is important, but the meaning of any work is ultimately decided by the audience. By now, they know they’ve got a PR problem on their hands because the comments are turned off on the ad on YouTube (but not their other ads). I’m sure somewhere at their ad agency people are debating whether to pull the ad or hope “there’s no such thing as bad press.”
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But also, the overarching premise is bizarre. She spent a full year making a selfie video about using an exercise bike (as a thank you to her husband), and then they sit down together to watch the video, as if this is all perfectly normal and enjoyable. This is the reductio ad absurdum of our entire civilization. Or possibly an indictment of it.
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It’s basically a 30 second episode of Black Mirror.
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Yeah, we were in the middle of some show and it popped up on Hulu and both looked at each other like, “Wow, that woman looked desperate.” We weren’t even paying that close attention to it at the time, but that was the impression we got. Later, once I started analyzing it (I work in marketing), it was obvious all the ways the commercial thought it was doing one thing but failed.
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There exists a Grand Canyon of great divide between crediting and thus acclaiming or criticizing an actor for their craft, and ascribing to them the fictional behavior of their characters. And recognizing the frequency with which members of the human race do the latter despite having no excuse for it isn’t even remotely “fun”, it’s fucking sad and causes real world damage to people. Since you’re being sarcastic, I’ll thank you not to assume my motives. And if you think it’s fun, then I pity you.
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Yeah, there is no joy apparent in the ad. Sure, exercising is hard work. You’re intentionally damaging your body so it will repair itself to be stronger. Maybe try to find a way to make that look fun. Alternately, make the end look triumphant. Neither happens here. It’s just looks like suffering. There is nothing positive to aspire to.
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But now Peleton has got you thinking about its brand.
“They said my name!”
That was the most grimly 21st Century part of the ad the first time I watched it.
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