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Peloton responds to Sex & The City character’s death while riding one of its bikes

At-home fitness brand issues spectacularly po-faced statement following opening episode of rebooted show

SPOILER ALERT: If you’re planning on watching the opening episode of And Just Like That…  – the new series that is a reboot of hit show Sex & The City – you may wish to look away now.

Ah, glad you’re all still with us.

At-home fitness brand Peloton has issued a spectacularly po-faced response to the main plot point in the debut episode, which aired on HBO Max in the US yesterday – namely, the death of one of the show’s leading characters while riding one of its static bikes.

Yes, we’re afraid that Mr Big (or John James Preston if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) is now Mr Six Feet Under – and Peloton reckons his lifestyle is to blame. 

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Big, whom you may recall ended up happily married to the show’s central character, Carrie Bradshaw – you know, the one who somehow managed to afford an apartment in a West Village brownstone despite living off a journalist’s salary [cough] – shuffled off to the big exercise class in the sky after taking part in his 1,000th session on Peloton, reports the LA Times.

The newspaper managed to get a statement from Dr Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventative cardiologist and also a member of Peloton’s health and wellness advisory council, who said that some aspects of Mr Big’s lifestyle put him in the high-risk category so far as heart problems are concerned.

“I’m sure ‘SATC’ fans, like me, are saddened by the news that Mr Big dies of a heart attack,” she said.

“Mr. Big lived what many would call an extravagant lifestyle – including cocktails, cigars, and big steaks – and was at serious risk as he had a previous cardiac event in Season 6.

“These lifestyle choices and perhaps even his family history, which often is a significant factor, were the likely cause of his death. Riding his Peloton Bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event.”

No mention there of copious amounts of energetic sex, which after all is one of the main themes of the series – although on reflection, we guess that counts as a decent cardio workout.

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Dr Steinbaum continued: “More than 80 per cent of all cardiac-related deaths are preventable through lifestyle, diet and exercise modifications. And while 25 per cent of heart attacks each year are in patients who already had one (like Mr Big), even then they are very, very treatable.

“The lesson here is, KNOW YOUR NUMBERS! It’s always important to talk to your doctor, get tested, and have a healthy prevention strategy. The good news is Peloton helps you track heart rate while you ride, so you can do it safely,” she added.

The LA Times added that Peloton was aware that one of its bikes would appear in the episode, and that one of its instructors, Jess King – on whom Mr Big had something of a crush, it seems – would appear in the episode playing a fictional instructor leading one of the brand’s virtual exercise classes.

Well meta.

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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15 comments

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AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
0 likes

Peloton shares might take a dive again, especially the additional context of the last advert.

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BenzVelo | 2 years ago
2 likes

At an approximation; 1000 rides equated to around 3.8 rides per week for 5+ yrs..... that was not the body of a man who was whooping his way through 3-4 hours of indoor mashing every week. In fact he should have looked more like Carrie than Mr Big at the end of that. It's probably why she was upset - she realised he must've been lying all along,

Tsk! typical man

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dreamlx10 | 2 years ago
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Probably died of embarrassment

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mdavidford replied to dreamlx10 | 2 years ago
2 likes

dreamlx10 wrote:

Probably died of embarrassment

From being made to use a Peloton, or from having to be in Sex and the City?

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Rapha Nadal | 2 years ago
1 like

Slow news day?

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edward.s | 2 years ago
2 likes

Probably died of shock when he realised how much he was paying for the Peloton.

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AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
1 like

Wasn't there a similar thing against Slow Cookers when some characrter was electrocuted in a show? I would say only in America but sadly it isn't.

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Shake | 2 years ago
2 likes

Only if there was still that video of the Peloton instructor telling us to climb for your dead relatives this festive period 

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mdavidford replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
1 like

Quote:

“Due to confidentiality reasons, HBO did not disclose the larger context surrounding the scene to Peloton in advance.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/and-just-like-that-peloton-bike-s...

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
0 likes

I expect lawyers are girding their loins as we speak now. 

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Awavey replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
0 likes

I doubt it, this is Hollywood & brands dont appear on screen without script approval for stuff like this & I rewatched it so that you didnt have to  1  & their branding is namechecked and positioned in a very obvious product placement style throughout, in the same way Oscar de la Renta dresses dont just appear by magic in the show. They probably just didnt expect it would impact their share price adversely.

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fenix replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
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Not always. Scripts change and can be very different after filming. They were aware of the bike being involved, but not the plot.
I doubt they'd have wanted the bike shown in this light.

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TriTaxMan replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
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Garage at Large wrote:

Wow, so they thought the prestige and publicity the brand would get through appearing on the show would outweigh the negative story that if you ride a Peloton, you might have a heart attack and die? I find that remarkable.

Oh so thats what the veiled comment was about the Peloton bike you made at me yesterday was about.

So basically what you said was that you think I should be dead.

If that's the way you want to play this game Nigel..... Game on

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the little onion | 2 years ago
15 likes

Mr Big brought his death on himself, because he wasn't wearing hi-vis or a helmet

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Blackthorne replied to the little onion | 2 years ago
0 likes

  

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