Peloton was just as surprised as “Sex and the City” fans by the death of Mr. Big in the debut episode of the reboot, and that its exercise bike was linked to his untimely demise.

Now, the company must navigate fan backlash and distance its product from the integral character's cause of death. In the process, Peloton could learn a few things from Crockpot, which found itself in a similar situation in 2018, when a slow cooker was revealed to have led to the death of Jack Pearson on NBC's “This Is Us.”

The highly-anticipated season two house fire that caused Jack's death was sparked by faulty wiring on a slow cooker, and for Crockpot, the fallout was immediate. Shortly after the episode aired, fans of the show took to social media to declare that they would be throwing out their Crockpots, while the company—whose public relations are handled by Edelman—contemplated suing “This Is Us” broadcaster NBC.

Last night's debut episode of HBO Max's “And Just Like That...,” a limited-run reboot of “Sex and the City,” saw Mr. Big killed off by way of a heart attack following a workout on his Peloton. The company claimed it had no prior knowledge of how its product would be placed in the show’s storyline. A real Peloton instructor, Jess King, played Allegra, the instructor on the fictional series. 

WarnerMedia, which owns the HBO Max streaming service and developed “And Just Like That…,” declined to comment on how the Peloton integration in question came to fruition.

The premiere was the most-watched debut of any series on HBO Max, according to the company. 

'Own the conversation'

“[Peloton] can bring a lot of information into the conversation, and by doing that, it helps them own the conversation,” said content strategy consultant Margot Bloomstein, who also authored “Trustworthy,” a book about building trust and brand-building with consumers.

Thus far, the exercise company has tried to pre-empt any connection being drawn between Mr. Big’s death and his Peloton, painting it as a life-prolonging machine and suggesting that the character’s “extravagant lifestyle” of cigars and steaks was the real force behind his untimely demise.

“These lifestyle choices and perhaps even his family history, which often is a significant factor, were the likely cause of his death,” cardiologist Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a member of Peloton's Health & Wellness Advisory Council, said in a statement released shortly after the episode in question aired. “Riding his Peloton Bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event,” she added.

Bloomstein said she believes Peloton’s statement, in which it fostered a sense of “camaraderie with the audience” by acknowledging their own shock at Mr. Big’s death, is a solid first step and might be best followed by engaging viewers with salient advice pertaining to the product, such as recommending users talk to their doctor before starting an intense exercise regimen.

“The big focus when any brand is engaging in crisis communication, what I would recommend to them, is to approach the topic with humility and vulnerability and be ready to dig in and talk with the audience, not preach at them,” Bloomstein said.

Navigating a product placement crisis

Even for top marketers and PR pros, it’s a challenge to overcome when your brand or product is cast in a negative light on TV, let alone when it’s seemingly responsible for killing a beloved character on screen.

“Most of the work that’s done in brand integration is actually done before anything goes to camera,” said Meilani Weiss, executive VP of brand integration and content partnerships at California-based agency R&CPMK. She suggested Peloton’s team likely did not ask “the right questions” of the studio to get “the full scope of the integration.”

“If a brand is going to have their IP be used within the content and clear that with a production company, there also needs to be an understanding that nothing disparaging to the brand is happening,” Weiss said.

While the situation Peloton finds itself in is rare—in Weiss’s 20-year career, she said she has not had to do damage control on any such product integration gone awry—it can happen without proper vetting of the production. But as Crockpot demonstrated after consumers started tying it to the fictional death of Jack Pearson, a potential brand crisis doesn’t have to spiral out of control. 

“I think a great example of a brand that has thrived rather than just survived in a crisis is Crockpot,” Mark Renshaw, then-global chair of the brand practice at Edelman, told Ad Age following the “This Is Us” house fire episode.

Instead of taking NBC to court as the brand had originally considered, they instead worked with the network to craft solutions, including having actor Milo Ventimiglia—who played the killed-off character—make a public apology video reconciling with a slow cooker, while also defending the brand during an “Ellen” appearance.

In a matter of days, the #CrockPotIsInnocent hashtag was trending, with the slogan also appearing on signs held by fans outside NBC’s “Today Show.” Some even began selling stickers for Crockpots on sites like Etsy that read: “Don’t forget to unplug me, Love, Jack.”

“I think the example of the Crockpot, you know, on the ‘This Is Us’ show burning down the house and killing off one of the stars, I think was an example where we were able to turn a situation that looked very negative into something that got Crockpot back in front of people, changed the perceptions of the brand, and kind of reinvented the brand and the fan base,” Renshaw, who has since departed Edelman and joined Australian hospitality platform SiteMinder as its chief marketing officer, said back in 2018.

Not only did Crockpot’s reputation remain intact, but the brand actually saw a sales lift following the event, Renshaw said, showing that revenues increased by more than $300,000 in February 2018, the next full month after the January “This Is Us” broadcast.

A troubled year

While thankfully Mr. Big’s demise is entirely fictional, this unfortunately is not the first death-related PR situation Peloton has faced this year.

In May, the company voluntarily recalled more than 100,000 treadmills linked to one child’s death and approximately 70 other injuries, despite initially refusing to recall the machines when the Consumer Product Safety Commission first requested that it do so.

Analysts at BMO Capital Markets suggested to Bloomberg News that the “And Just Like That…” storyline is similarly “unlikely to impact sales” of Peloton bikes.

Peloton shares—down 73% so far this year—fell nearly 5.4% to $38.51 on Friday after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform. Analyst Kaumil Gajrawala cited concerns such as the return of more in-person fitness, not the show. "To fight slowing demand, the company is increasing advertising and discounting more," Gajrawala wrote. 

See Ad Age's 2021 Year in Review here.