Billions: Peloton Says It ‘Did Not Agree’ to Appearance in Season 6 Premiere
For the second time in as many months, the fitness company Peloton is addressing its use in a popular TV series — this time, Showtime‘s Billions.
During the financial drama’s Season 6 premiere on Sunday night (mild spoilers ahead!), David Costabile’s Mike “Wags” Wagner suffered a non-fatal heart attack after using a Peloton exercise bike. And though Wags didn’t meet the same fate as And Just Like That‘s Mr. Big — who died shortly after a Peloton ride in the Sex and the City revival’s premiere — Peloton said on Sunday that the company did not sign off on an appearance in Billions‘ return.
“We get TV shows want to include @onepeloton to get people talking, but to be clear, we did *not* agree for our brand or IP to be used on @SHO_Billions or provide any equipment,” reads a tweet from Peloton’s official account. “As the show itself points out, cardio-vascular exercise helps people lead long, happy lives.”
A rep for Billions did not immediately respond to TVLine’s request for comment. (Read our full recap of Sunday’s premiere here.)
In December, following Peloton’s unflattering appearance in And Just Like That, the company swiftly responded with a tongue-in-cheek ad of its own, in which Chris Noth’s Mr. Big and cycling instructor Allegra (played by real-life Peloton trainer Jess King) toasted to new beginnings.
“Shall we take another ride?” Mr. Big asked in the spot. “Life’s too short not to.”
The ad, however, was ultimately pulled days later following multiple sexual assault allegations against Noth.
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Oh boo hoo. It’s called creative license. Be grateful your overpriced “IP” which is nothing more than an exercise bike was featured and generated buzz.
No such thing as bad publicity, they are loving this again
I understand corporations have gained so much power they think they control everything, but they don’t. If I were a showrunner, I’d be writing another Peloton heart attack, just to spite them.
The next episode of Euphoria a Peloton bike takes out a family of four.
Next season of True Detective: an investigator tracks down a serial killer who’s gifting healthy people Pelotons and they die on their first ride.
LOL to both of the above story ideas
Corporations don’t have to sign off on using their brands on tv or in movies, studios can use them freely. Using fake brands or hiding logos is not a necessity, studios just don’t want to give them free advertising most of the time and prefer the have appearances of brands paid for but they can still use them.
So boo hoo, Peloton. Get over it.
So if you owned a restaurant and a television show writes it into a storyline where one of the main characters get either violent food poisoning or dies of heart attack and it is heavily implied that your restaurant was the cause, you would be all good then?
After all, it is PR.
Yes, it should be common sense it isn’t the same thing as reality, but I bet there are many things in your life that you thought were cool until you someone else or a tv show or the internet mock it.
I think comparing a huge corporation to a mom and pop restaurant is disingenuous. It’s like a film or TV show name-dropping Beyoncé, and over a 100 of them have, some with jokes and absurd claims – and name-dropping a regular person in a joke, with an absurd claim.
It’s fake,this isn’t a biopic or news report.