Thursday, December 5, 2019

The Peleton Controversy

Would you like an exercise bike that costs around $2,245 (or more) whose main selling feature is a large internet enabled screen that allows you to stream live or taped exercise classes (via subscription), so you spin along with others while an exercise instructor motivates you, like in a live spinning class?

A company called "Peleton" which makes and sells such bikes has suddenly become a household name, due to a commercial which has gone viral - for some of the wrong reasons.

As someone who 1.  can't afford a Peleton exercise bike and 2. someone who used to own an exercise bike, which ended up as a device to drape my clothes all over when I was too lazy to hang them back up, I am watching, with great amusement, the controversy over a Peleton exercise bike.

The original commercial is at the end of this news feature, but first, you can enjoy some of the paradies it has inspired   Be aware, some of them contain strong language and are Not Suitable for Work.

The comments at the end of the news article I linked to are...kind of interesting.

Normally, I don't have much interest in what goes on in the Twitterverse (after all, I have a full time job) but this one caught my attention.

My thought? I think, whatever kind of exercise you do and keep on doing is the right exercise for you.  I did water aerobics once to twice a week for almost 20 years but finally quit it.  Now, I walk and do some exercises to relieve back pain and to help with a frozen shoulder I've had for a year or so.  (Both exercise routines came from physical therapy, I might add.)  I also do some balance exercises learned at a balance program for seniors I attended in 2015.

But some people need a lot more than that.  And, how would you feel if the love of your life got you an exercise machine?  Would you be thrilled?  Or insulted?

In case you want to exercise in other ways, that can easily cost zero. (iPhone and sports equipment optional.)

Remember this commercial for the iPhone 5 from 2014?  I was one of the "Chicken Fat" generation, as I was in elementary school when this Meredith Wilson song came out in 1962.

In all honesty, if my spouse bought me an exercise bike, I would probably slug him with it (if I could lift it....hmmm, about that weight work I need....)

I say, instead, "Go, you chicken fat, go!" It's such a catchy song.

So, I will ask my readers (especially any who may own one of these):  what do you think about the Peleton controversy?

4 comments:

  1. Had just a treadmill which got a lot of use at first and then not so much. My son had a Bowflex, but then he did not use that either. I still have his set of weights sitting in the basement. A neighbor spent several thousand for an exercise bike that her husband hardly ever used. It is all marketing, just like selling gym memberships that don't get used. I di not know there was a Peleton controversy but can understand it. A friend told me that those pedometers were originally invented just to make money. And it worked.

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  2. the "woke" folks are a little bit "out there", aren't they? I see nothing wrong with the ad.

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  3. I have heard nothing of this (and I can't watch the video as I am at school right now). I think I will happily remain blissfully ignorant.

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  4. I loved the "Chicken Fat" video! You brought back some long-ago memories. Can't make up my mind about the Peloton ad.It seems a lot of hoopla over basically nothing.

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