The latest Twitter storm to strike involves the maker of an exercise bike who dared to target women customers in online ad campaign.
Thank St Nicholas for the mainstream media and the army of Twitter feminists for saving men across the world from yet more accusations of being sexist pigs this Christmas.
Anyone thinking of wrapping an exercise bike in a ribbon and giving it to their female partner, family member or friend has been safely warned away from that unforgivable blunder.
Imagine Peloton trying to sell its exercise bicycles and online spin classes to women! What were they thinking? It’s like shouting “you’re fat and you’re ugly” into the face of anyone who is lucky enough to be gifted one of their $2,000 exercise machines along with on-demand cycling programs.
The online advert featured a grateful owner of a Peloton bike making a video for her husband which shows how her health and fitness has changed over the course of one year, and saying: “A year ago, I didn’t realise how much this would change me.”
Tired of finding real people for whom they can take offense, some Twitter users are looking for fictional beings, actors, and actresses on YouTube adverts who will give them a reason to pump out guff on social media.
Meanwhile, the BBC duly plays its part by ordering teams of “reporters” to trawl the internet and conflate disparate opinions on a topic into the faux outrage of a manufactured Twitter storm.
Without this help, the opinions of the trite, deluded narcissists would go unreported and the world would be a much less divisive place and probably, much to Peloton’s dismay, unaware that the exercise bike even existed.
But then what we would have done without having the views of “comedy writer” Jess Dweck broadcast further on her behalf by the BBC?
“The only way to enjoy that Peloton ad is to think of it as the first minute of an episode of Black Mirror,” she posted.
How on message, how media aware, and how, like so many “comedy writers”, unfunny.
While the outrage is totally bogus, there was a stock slump for Peloton, the US-based company with shares down 9% on Tuesday.
While the BBC suggests this was due to the online mockery, the sum total of videos ‘taking the Mickey’ out of the advert which US broadcaster CNN ‘unearthed’ was two. The BBC offered no such evidence.
It seems a bit of a stretch for attributing a slump in business to a couple of guys goofing about in their home-made videos. But that would be a non-story.
So the BBC, and to be fair, the equally desperate CNN, reports the mockery of a YouTube campaign on social media as a news story. They fail to understand the purpose of social media and particularly Twitter.
It exists to provide a safe space for the chickens of this world who seize on every opportunity they spy to vent their jealousy, to insult, abuse, bully and yes, mock.
Even if that mockery is targeting an advert using fictional characters selling virtual exercise classes to an online audience.
You cannot get further away from reality than that. No matter how fast you pedal.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.