Sunday, January 26
This week we’re looking at that Peloton ad — in a way you probably haven’t before.
The ad, you may remember, portrayed a husband giving his wife an exercise bike for the holidays. People screenshotted it, and circulated the images on Twitter, analyzing the woman’s uncomfortable facial expressions, and concluding the ad was straight from Black Mirror.
“Someone please help the woman from Peloton's awful new ad,” wrote USA Today in a headline. Peloton promptly lost $1.5 billion in market cap.
People on social media hated the ad, and turned it into a catastrophe for Peloton. But among the general population, it was… a hit. Especially among women. This according to the ad effectiveness measurement firm Ace Metrix, which I emailed recently.
“Compared to health & fitness ads over the past year, the 30-second ‘The Gift That Gives Back’ performed significantly above norms across most gender/age groups,” Sammi Scharninghausen, a marketing manager for Ace Metrix told me. The ad, she said, “actually found its strongest resonance among females ages 36-49.”
Ace Metrix conducts its surveys 24-48 hours after an ad shows up, so respondents typically aren’t influenced by social media. Overall, 45% of those who saw the ad reported “positive purchase intent,” which meant they wanted to buy it. Not bad.
“When it came to social media, this ad seemed to unite people in their love to hate it,” Scharninghausen said. “But when looked at from a creative effectiveness perspective, which is what we measure, the general population thought that it was a solid ad for the brand, albeit with a few issues.”
The Peloton ad had its problems, and I see why some labeled it sexist. But it’s yet another example of how social media is often completely disconnected from larger reality.
Online detectives have their moment
It’s been a good few weeks for amateur online detectives. These digital sleuths are often derided — and with cause. They love conspiracy theories. But sometimes, they get things right, and some impressive work has come to light over the past few weeks.
On Netflix, a new, three-part documentary called “Don't F**k With Cats” follows a Facebook Group obsessed with a deranged man who killed cats and posted the videos online. I won’t ruin it, but the group found him long before law enforcement did.
Then there’s Jomboy. After former Houston Astros pitcher Mike Fiers said that his team stole signs and signaled what was coming to the batter by banging a trash can, the baseball YouTuber Jomboy went to work. He grabbed footage of key Houston Astros at bats, and made a video highlighting the “Bam!” ahead of certain pitches, catching the Astros red handed. Jomboy’s videos, watched by millions, marked a major moment, and three major league baseball managers lost their jobs.
Bezos’s high life
There’s an amazing opening anecdote in a recent New York Times article about Jeff Bezos’s transformation from computer geek to “tabloid man” that I can’t resist sharing. In 2018 when Bezos and his then–wife MacKenzie celebrated their anniversary, Bezos booked a table in a Miami night club using the internet. The club’s celebrity liaison, the Times relayed, called this “totally dorky.” The next year, Bezos showed up to a Miami restaurant in a 90-foot Leopard superyacht.
Bezos’s personal life has transformed in a short amount of time. Amazon insists he’s the same guy he’s always been, but I wonder. You can read the full story by the talented Karen Weise here.
My book about the tech giants is on the way
Always Day One, my new book, may not arrive in a 90-foot Leopard superyacht, but there will be lots of Bezos in it. Every preorder means a lot to me, as this is how books are often judged as they debut.
You can find the links to your retailers of choice here: www.alexkantrowitz.com
