As will probably come as a surprise to nobody by this point, this ad for the very expensive Peloton stationary bike has garnered a whole lot of negative feedback:
I have to admit that while I, too, reacted with disdain the first time I saw the ad a few weeks ago, my reaction was different than the Standard Accepted Response. While the bulk of the Woke Internet seems to see this ad as depicting a wife who is under the thumb of a domineering husband, working her keister off with slatherings of fake enthusiasm in the hopes of meeting his high expectations… I saw it as a horribly vain Instagrammer-Influencer-type who goes to great lengths to constantly film herself pretending to work out, all in hopes of gaining likes from her audience, and who then makes her doubtless put-upon husband sit there and watch what is surely hours and hours of banal vanity. Because she looks no different at the end of the supposed year of workouts than she does at the beginning, so it sure looks to me like her actions are all about *appearing* to be working out rather than actually working out. It’s not like they show someone actually losing weight; she starts of just as fit as she ends up.
But as I said, it seems that the vast majority of folks see it rather differently, that she’s got Stockholm Syndrome and a bad relationship. I’ve always had a bit of difficulty in picking up on some cues like this, so I’ll just shrug and so “ok, sure, maybe.” So, building on the idea that the wife in the ad is in a bad relationship, “Aviation Gin” hired the same actress for an ad for their product. It does not directly address the Peloton ad (apart from the very obvious title), but… see if it looks like a possible sequel to you.
Aviation Gin is partially owner by “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, which may go some way towards explaining why the company has a sense of humor.