Sex and the City Sends Peloton Stock Prices into Downward Spiral

It has been an interesting 'ride' for the folks who bring the Peloton exercise equipment into your home. It's hard to think of a stationary bike platform as having ups and downs but Peloton certainly has seen its share of the roller coaster ride over the past year or so.

To be honest, the Peloton folks have created a bit of their own drama. When the product was first introduced, sales were spectacular. The advertising campaign featured a young woman working hard to get into shape.

However, there was soon backlash from the Peloton spot because many people felt the advertisement promoted sexist stereotypes. Mainly that women should be in great physical shape to please the men in their lives. Well, that was the way I saw the commercial.

If you ascribe to the theory that no publicity is bad publicity, this commercial would qualify. While the company did experience backlash from many groups, sales of the exercise equipment continued to be fairly strong.

However, there was another recent dip in the Peloton cycle of Merry Christmas profits. That dip came courtesy of a totally unexpected source, the new Sex in the City sequel And Just Like That. 

Alrighty, if you're a fan of Sex in the City and haven't seen the movie you'll want to stop reading right here. There are spoilers about to come and I don't want you mad at me because I messed up your story.

Let's set the stage for you And Just Like That is the next instalment of the Sex in the City series that was wildly popular on cable tv a few years ago. The series follows the lives of Carrie Bradshaw and her girlfriends as they negotiate the pitfalls of being female in New York.

Here's where the spoiler comes in.

In the first five minutes of the movie, Mr Big the fictional husband of the fictional Carrie Bradshaw suffers a heart attack and dies after riding on his Peloton. It couldn't have been just an exercise bike, it was a Peloton and Wall Street reacted.

According to an article published by Rolling Stone shares of Peloton stock tumbled from around $45 per share to a little more than $39 per share within 24 hours of the movie's release. That translates into a whole lot of money lost.

What's amazing to me is that Mr Big and Carrie Bradshaw are FICTIONAL characters. Oh and if you actually watched Sex in the City you'd know Mr Big liked to drink, eat rich foods, and smoke cigars. And, yes he did have a cardiac episode in a previous instalment of the show.  Yet, America blamed his death on exercise.

Peloton did issue a statement about the movie saying they were aware their product would be used. However, they were not informed that their equipment would be "instrumental" in the death of a character in the movie.

So, what would you do? If you're Peloton, you create a parody commercial and let social media do its thing.

And boom goes the dynamite. What a spectacular recovery from a situation you should have never gotten yourself into. This parody advertisement helped Peloton recover a good chunk of the money that was lost because of the unfortunate demise of Mr Big. Thanks to this parody ad, the stock price had recovered more than 2.5% of the value lost due to the kneejerk reaction to the Sex and the City scene.

So we go from a Hollywood/Wall Street awkward moment to the kinds of moments that only you and I can have.