What isn’t retroactively disgusting nowadays? Usually, however, it takes a little bit longer for something to become so icky. And yet, with the acceleration of how everything changes by the hour ever since corona came to roost, this latest abrupt decision makes plenty of sense as well. Hence, the illustrious Peloton ad featuring Mr. Big returned from the grave taking practically no time at all to be kiboshed. Rather unfortunate for the brand, which already has plenty of experience in causing offense to women with its “The Gift That Gives Back” ad. Luckily, there is no need to pity corporations as they will all be our undoing relatively soon.
Any who, with Chris Noth being another drop in the ocean of men accused of sexual misconduct post-#MeToo, Peloton has decided to show us that they’re just as woke as And Just Like That… itself (ensuring that it ticks every box of ethnic and sexual flair that Sex and the City never did). Swift in their decision to pull the ad, the company remarked, “Every single sexual assault accusation must be taken seriously. We were unaware of these allegations when we featured Chris Noth in our response to HBO’s reboot. As we seek to learn more, we have stopped promoting this video and archived related social posts.”
Of course, whatever form of “more” that they learn likely won’t help Noth’s “cause,” nor put the taint back into Pandora’s box. Perhaps too suggestive a term to use in this instance. For not only has an additional woman, Zoe Lister-Jones, come forward to corroborate the two anonymous ones’ take on Noth as a sexual predator, but the character of Mr. Big himself was already an affront even before the #MeToo phenomenon came along to vaguely prompt men to rethink their behavior toward women. Though, naturally, only because they didn’t want to risk being cancelled. Not because they actually, you know, gave that much of a shit about women’s consent.
Then there is the retroactive contamination of the ad via the fact that Noth as Big utters the words, “Shall we take another ride?” as lasciviously as possible to the instructor (Jess King) who played Allegra on the episode that kills off Big. It certainly ups the quotient on causing the viewer to shudder. Intensified by him adding, “Life’s too short.” As though that can now be interpreted to mean, “Which is why I took what I wanted from those women without asking.”
In any event, Peloton ever agreeing to be featured in the reboot of SATC for a product placement boost has turned out to be the most fatal PR mistake the company has made thus far. Which just goes to show that tying one’s wagon to a celebrity–particularly a male one–is doomed to backfire in the present climate. Now if this were “Golden Age” Hollywood, the cover-ups would be far more efficient, wouldn’t they? Alas, this is post-Empire NYC we’re referring to. And when Carrie told Big, “You can’t leave New York, you’re the Chrysler Building,” she had no idea just how much New Yorkers of the present would be only too happy to see him go. That is, if they themselves weren’t leaving in droves for the very same places that Noth might need to hide out in.
