This Week in PR: Peloton reacts to Sex and the City’s Just Like That and flexes PR creativity

Warning, spoiler alert if you’ve not yet seen Sex and the City’s latest series Just Like That.

This week Peloton turned crisis into opportunity.

In episode one of Sex and the City’s latest series Just Like That, Mr Big suffers a fatal heart attack following his evening Peloton session. Meanwhile – in the real world – Peloton’s stock fell 10% in two days of the HBO premiere.

The PR team was reportedly caught off-guard by Peloton’s SATC’s debut and initially issued a statement from a doctor noting ’25 percent of heart attacks each year are by patients who have already had one (like Mr. Big) even then they are very treatable’. The statement failed to ignite much love for the brand but did its job of easing consumer concerns.

They later hit back with an ad featuring Mr. Big and Ryan Reynolds making fun of the storyline and putting Peloton back on track (with its stock rebounding 7%).

This is a great example of reactive PR done good, and the lesson we’ve all learned – sometimes it pays to join in on the joke.