Social-media’s latest exercise: Getting worked up over a Peloton ad

An actor is pictured in this screengrab from 'The Gift That Gives Back' exercise bike commercial. Opinionators on Twitter and other social-media outlets have taken issue with the commercial, pronouncing it sexist and disparaging the company as a promulgator of lifestyles for the 1%. — Peloton/Reuters

LOS ANGELES: People say they no longer watch TV commercials. And yet, hundreds appear to have scrutinised an ad from interactive-workout company Peloton with an intensity so vigorous it threatens to overwhelm the Web.

By now you've no doubt heard: Peloton, which makes exercise gear and provides a streaming-video service that offers workouts tailored to it, recently released a commercial in which a young wife chronicles her workouts on one of the company's exercise machines. It was given to her for Christmas by her husband, and she makes a video thanking her spouse for the gift.