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You're off here by millions and millions of dollars. This case is worth much, much more in the court of public opinion to Peloton than in actual court. People g
by rriepe 5y ago
You're off here by millions and millions of dollars. This case is worth much, much more in the court of public opinion to Peloton than in actual court. People generally agree with the first version of the story they hear. In 2021, saying "no comment" (instead of this equally say-nothing statement that at least shapes the narrative) is just handing that opportunity away.
Thirty years ago, "no comment" could buy you some time and you could present your case later in primetime (or whatever you could land) to lots of first-time impressions. In 2021, it's almost always a stupid thing to say from a PR standpoint (I'm sure some lawyers would still love it) because everything is always-on and there's almost no element of timing aside from burying stories on Friday.
- alisonkisk 5y agoBlaming parents of the kid who your machine just killed, while mentioning that you know this happens from time to time, is worse than "no comment".
- PurpleFoxy 5y agoA treadmill is a dangerous piece of equipment. Almost all of them have ways a child could seriously hurt themselves on while it’s running. Parents should be expected to keep their kids out of the room while it’s in use.
- rriepe 5y ago> A treadmill is a dangerous piece of equipment. Exactly. The only thing that's different now is it's a dangerous piece of equipment with a popular brand name. The people who are upset about this are going to be really upset when they find out treadmills have regularly been killing a few people a year for decades. And they're one of the less deadly pieces of workout equipment!
- ncallaway 5y agoDunno about this. If they had said they were concerned about the issue, and investigating the matter I'd be happy to consider their brand again. Getting into a public fight with the CPSC completely taints my view of their brand. Peloton is pretty much entirely crossed off my list of products I would consider because of their response. I mean, they _did_ get their denial into my first read of the story, but they did it in a way that seems far more brand damaging than a noncommittal expression of concern. Peloton is now, to me, the brand that doesn't really care if they kill children.
- rriepe 5y agoI'm not normally one to stand in the way of vitriolic hyperbole, but we were talking about "no comment" vs what was actually said. I am on the "no comment would have been worse" team. Please don't sign me up for any other teams, especially not the child-killers, thanks.
- ncallaway 5y agoSure, and I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong in your take on what is a better PR move. I'm certainly not a PR expert. I'm just speaking as a brand consumer, and the tone of the response (public fight with CPSC vs statement of concern and a promise to investigate) speaks loudly to me about how much they care about the underlying issue. Of course, the actions matter more to me in the long run. Regardless of what they say today, what they do over the next 6-18 weeks matters the most. But as far as statements go, I feel like an expression of sympathy, concern, and a desire to investigate the issue would be better in my book.
- numpad0 5y agoBoom, now they’ve eliminated “toxic customer” critical of the brand out of the equation. This is such a horrible line of thought, but if their founders and investors don’t go actually personally financially and/or physically punished from being morally corrupt, that is only a good thing for the company!