Remember when HBO caught major backlash for the infamous and improperly placed coffee cup in episode four of Game of Thrones’ eighth and final season? 

The cup, which appeared alongside goblets and animal horns during a celebratory feast at Winterfell castle, caused the internet to go absolutely bonkers, with memes galore and news coverage popping up, attributing blame/credit to Starbucks and a cast member from Thrones. 

For an episode that costs roughly around $15 million to make, that placement was a $250,000 mistake that gave Starbucks quite the press campaign, despite Starbucks having nothing to do with the accidental placement and/or branding of the look-a-like coffee cup from a local coffee shop in Northern Ireland. . 

While the cup has since been quietly removed from the episode, thanks to HBO, the jokes and memes have continued to serve as a case study and example of (inadvertent) product placement gone wrong. 

And for the fitness/lifestyle giant, Peloton, who hasn’t had the greatest year of marketing success, arguably made the worst product placement in the industry’s history on the first episode of the Sex and the City reboot, “And Just Like That.”

What Happened?

The first episode of the reboot reintroduced viewers to some familiar characters from the original series’ casting, except for Samantha, but brought a gut-wrenching surprise to viewers.

[SPOILER ALERT: The below contains big spoiler alerts for all SATC fans who haven’t yet watched the first episode of the reboot TV show, ‘And Just Like That…’]

In the episode’s first episode, fans were met with the shocking death of Chris Noth’s character Mr. Big, the major love interest of Carrie. However, the death itself wasn’t the only shock; it was the atmosphere surrounding Mr. Big’s death. 

Mr. Big died of a heart attack…after a workout he had on (wait for it)…his Peloton exercise bike. During the first two days of the series launch, Peloton’s shares dropped 15.3%, and fingers are pointing to that episode.

The ways in which consumers absorb content today make product placement absolutely essential and crucial to get right every time. Right now, consumers are obtaining content primarily through digital means, where brands now have the ability to live on forever. Since brands are forever immortalized in these works, a simple placement is all it takes, and it must be tasteful. 

The surrounding circumstances of the character’s death on Episode 1 of this reboot made Peloton’s placement of its bike absolutely distasteful and damaging to the company itself – whether they realized it or not. 

What makes this arguably the worst placement in history is that Peloton claims it knew nothing about Mr. Big’s death in the episode due to alleged confidentiality requirements of the script, which seems to have kept the company in the dark with respect to the plotline. While Peloton did coordinate with HBO on the placement of its bike, it claims it had no idea how that bike was going to be used, assigning potential fault to HBO and its marketing and executive teams. 

How You Respond Is Everything

Surely, Peloton had its own marketing heart attack, which led to the decision by the company to immediately launch the “He’s Alive” ad in efforts to undo the damage caused by Mr. Big’s death scene. 

In the ad, we see Mr. Big resurrected with the title ‘And just like that…he’s alive’. Unfortunately, it appeared that the ad itself wasn’t as realistic as Sex and the City fans had hoped, considering the history of Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big, where in the ad, Noth’s character, age 67, seems to have been enjoying the company of a 30-something individual, leaving his wife. 

As of today, Peloton subsequently had to pull its ad following accusations of sexual misconduct by five women against star Chris Noth.

You can still watch the ad here…and why? Immortalization.

At the end of the day, every placement must be simple, tasteful, but most importantly – realistic.