Fitbit Ran A Valentine’s Day Campaign That Was Kinda Cute But Mostly Creepy

In case you missed it, fitness bracelet/app/heart monitor thing company Fitbit ran a competition in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, encouraging people to share the ‘most extreme steps’ they’ve taken to win someone’s affections, all in the name of love.

To spruik the competition, the fitness tracking company aired the a short advertisement where a guy improves his fitness so he can catch up to a woman who jogs past his house. Over the course of a few weeks he gets closer and closer to the jogging woman (literally), but right at the last second she amps up her game and takes the stairs — but not before giving the guy a cheeky smile.

It’s trying to be cute, but read between the lines and it’s actually a pretty creepy video. This guy’s spending a lot of time trying to catch a woman, chasing after her day after day, without her knowledge. She has no idea he’s following her, and is jogging along like there’s no sweaty, exhausted guy with doe eyes hot on her heels. The theory of ‘the chase’ in relation to the dating game is something everyone will experience at some point in time, but to convert it to physically chasing a woman up the street is unnerving.

I saw a Fitbit ad where a guy keeps running after a woman & gets more able to chase her more effectively. How lovely. I bet she feels safe.

— Sally (@The_Black_Arrow) February 19, 2015

That @fitbit commercial where the guy chases the woman and then gets fit so he can catch her is the creepiest ad I’ve ever seen.

— Scott Dooley (@scottdools) February 1, 2015

That Fitbit ad with the bloke getting fit so he can chase a female jogger is very creepy. #creepy — Steve Hewlett (@StevieHewla) February 18, 2015

So the fitbit ad where the dude repeatedly chases the hot jogging girl is pretty problematic — Melody Thomas (@WriteByMelody) February 22, 2015

Protip to any guys with an exercise-crush on someone: don’t do this. Chasing women is bad, especially in the literal sense.