In a different era, the dual statements that SoulCycle and Equinox Fitness posted on Twitter this week might have seemed radical: two popular American brands essentially disavowing a sitting President.[NEW YORK] In a different era, the dual statements that SoulCycle and Equinox Fitness posted on Twitter this week might have seemed radical: two popular American brands essentially disavowing a sitting President.
"We want you to know that Equinox and SoulCycle have nothing to do with the event and do not support it," the Equinox statement said.It was just the latest example of major brands edging away from Mr Trump. But in an indication of how distasteful any connection to the President has become among some consumers, even those statements were not enough to stem the criticism.
Other companies have opposed Mr Trump on issues like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act or the Paris climate accord. And after the President's tepid initial response to the violence at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the chief executives of several major companies quit a White House business panel in protest.
“There needs to be an acknowledgment of fault, which I haven’t seen so far,” said Matt Rizzetta, chief executive of North 6th Agency, a communications firm. He added that the companies also needed to give “a demonstration of empathy for the customer, which, again, I haven’t seen, either". "Mr Ross is a passive investor and is not involved in the management of either business," the Equinox statement said.
A number of celebrities, including Chrissy Teigen and Jonathan Van Ness, have also said they were cancelling their memberships.