Peloton is this close to pulling their widely ridiculed Holiday ad after shares for the company fell by over 9 percent on Tuesday. This drop erased almost $942 million from Peloton's market value in just one day, which is the company's largest single-day drop since October. Their market cap is now at roughly $9.4 billion. Ironically, the stationary bike brand was actually having a very successful end of 2019. Shares had reached an all-time high on Monday, right before their ad made its rounds across the Internet and responses started to turn sour. Justin Patterson, an analyst at Raymond James, believes that Peloton's response to the displeased reaction to the ad is "worth monitoring." He expects that, if the ad is pulled, the controversy will eventually die down; once late-night shows like Saturday Night Live do their “inevitable” parodies, of course.
The ad in question was criticized over social media for its sexist and slightly disturbing implications. A woman is gifted a Peloton bike from her husband for the holidays, and she records her fitness journey to make him a video diary that she gives to him the following holiday season. The whole thing rubbed most people the wrong way, and it's clearly impacting the company's success.