Peloton is getting rid of its CEO and cutting hundreds of jobs
Company is trying to turn things around
Peloton is ousting its CEO, John Foley, and doing a major overhaul of its board, as well as getting rid of hundreds of employees. It’s part of a new plan to try and and recover from a very difficult year for the company, which included a whole bunch of negative press.
In 2021, of course, there was the whole “Peloton girl” fiasco, where a commercial showing a husband getting his wife a Peloton brought a whole bunch of negative press. But that was only the beginning.
The girl seemed to not enjoy the “gift” from her partner. In December, of course, right at the end of the first episode of the Sex and The City reboot, Mr. Big (Chris Noth) had a heart attack after having finished his workout on, yup, a Peloton. Ryan Reynolds used the debacle to create a funny spot where Mr. Big survived, but it too was cursed as sexual harassment claims surfaced, resulting in the clip being removed from the Internet.
Astonishingly, this wasn’t the last bad product placement for the company. Peloton’s latest on-screen appearance came in the season-sex premier of Billions in January. In the episode, a hedge fund COO that goes by Wags has a heart attack while riding the bike. Unlike Chris Noth’s character, Wags survives his workout.
Peloton just had the worst product placement imaginable in the new Sex and the City show
Despite striking similarities between the two cameos, Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman says his program isn’t riding the coattails of Sex and the City‘s reboot. Koppelman told USA Today that the episode was written a year ago and filmed in April 2021. A line referencing, and perhaps taking an easy shot at HBO’s show, was added after And Just Like That… aired in December.
The coincidence, two fictional heart attacks in two months, had Peloton asking what the brand’s done to attract the ire of T.V. writing rooms.
On Tuesday, Peloton’s stock fell as much as 13 per cent in pre-market after the news that CEO John Foley would step down. It rose slightly during the day, but it’s hardly smooth sailing for the company. Peloton has announced plans to cut 2,800 jobs, which could affect 20 per cent of its workforce. There are rumours now that Amazon or Nike are interesting in buying the beleaguered company.
Barry McCarthy, who is the former Chief Financial Officer of both Spotify and Netflix, will be replacing Foley as the indoor trainer company’s CEO.
