Tim McGraw Deletes Tweet Announcing Planet Fitness Partnership After Backlash

Aaron Ryan·
COUNTRY MUSIC
·
Tim McGraw country music
@TheTimMcGraw

Not the reaction that he was expecting?

Tim McGraw has been under fire recently after announcing his new partnership with gym chain Planet Fitness. (And no, it’s not because they’re a gym that also offers free pizza to bait people into signing up for a membership then makes it impossible to cancel).

Planet Fitness stock (both literally and figuratively) took a hit in March when they banned a woman named Patricia Silva from their facilities after she shared a photo of a man shaving his face in the women’s locker room. According to the New York Post, the man said he was “transitioning” and he was accompanied by a Planet Fitness employee in the locker room. But when Silva complained to the employee that he should leave, she was told to use a stall if she was uncomfortable.

After she posted the photo, Planet Fitness revoked the woman’s membership and released the following statement:

“As the home of the Judgement Free Zone, Planet Fitness is committed to creating an inclusive environment. Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity. The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being terminated.”

That move didn’t sit well with some folks, and much like we saw with Bud Light, Planet Fitness has now reporting significant losses in the wake of the backlash. Chief Financial Officer Tom Fitzgerald reported last week:

“The first part of March was pretty good, and then once social media sort of blew up over our policy issue, we definitely saw a change in the results in the back half of March. Joins and cancels were fairly significantly affected. The good news is we’ve seen the joins rebound, but cancels have remained elevated.”

In March, it was reported that company’s value tanked $400 million while people continued to call for boycotts. The company has also raised its prices for the first time since 1998.

So I get why they would want to partner with a celebrity like Tim McGraw to try to turn things around. Tim and any gym seem like a match made in Heaven from a partnership standpoint. I mean, who better to sell a fitness product than a man who is in better shape than most people half his age? However, given the current public opinion on Planet Fitness, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Tim announced the partnership on Tuesday with a tweet offering fans their first month free at Planet Fitness with his promo code.

But immediately, the post was flooded with comments from folks who weren’t happy with the decision:

Tim’s announcement also drew the attention of popular conservative account Libs of TikTok, but the reply was quickly hidden by Tim or whoever was running the account:

Well after three days, the tweet announcing the partnership has been deleted – though there are still posts on his Instagram about the partnership, where the comments are much the same.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Planet Fitness (@planetfitness)

Seems like this partnership is off to a great start…

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