‘Just wow': Anytime Fitness slammed over ad
A controversial ad posted by Anytime Fitness has been scrubbed from the internet after a mountain of negative feedback.
The video, posted by Marrickville Anytime Fitness, showed a worker hiding behind the gym before leaping out at a passerby.
The worker then pretends to 'knock out' the passerby with chloroform before dragging them into the venue and making them sign a membership contract while unconscious.
'When our boss tells us to sign up more members,' the video was captioned.
The video was posted to the Marrickville Community group and quickly received dozens of negative comments.
'FYI drugging and kidnapping women is not a cute and acceptable marketing strategy,' one wrote.
Another wrote: 'Seriously? Who thought a video showing a member of your team kidnapping someone off the street, doping them so they lose consciousness and then forging their signature for a monthly membership would be a good marketing idea.'
The video remained up with the negative comments deleted before it was eventually taken down.
'Just wow. I am so speechless about how tone deaf the original post was but then how you've doubled down by refusing to remove it and deleting negative comments,' one commenter wrote.
Anytime Fitness did not respond to multiple requests for comment by news.com.au.
The faux pas comes just days after a popular teeth-whitening brand was forced to issue an apology for its latest advertising campaign.
White Glo's new ad, emblazoned with the phrase 'Make the white choice', has been spotted on Melbourne trams and Sydney buses in recent days, quickly sparking a wave of backlash online.
In a statement, White Glo said that while the ads were 'purely about teeth whitening, with no other intended meaning' they would be working to remove the ads due to the offence caused.
'Our ads feature the tagline 'Make the White Choice' which is intended to be a wordplay on 'Make the Right Choice', to highlight the effectiveness and reliability of our products, versus some less effective products we are seeing emerge in the market,' a statement read.
'Whilst this campaign was accepted by Australia's Advertising Regulator in April, the response in the last couple of days has indicated that we have missed the mark.'
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