A gym that was tagged on Twitter in what appears to be a sarcastic joke gone awry apologized after responding.
The video was of Taliban militants exercising in a deserted gym.
PureGym, the gym that was tagged, said it had made an innocent mistake when user @Curlygaz1 tagged them asking the time of spin class over the fateful video of the militants pumping iron.
You can see the joke post here:
Hi @PureGym what time is the spin class ?pic.twitter.com/HAp0fchum6— Gaz (@Gaz) 1629213092
| NEW: Pure Gym responds to video of Taliban working outpic.twitter.com/UzJEfougfj— News For All (@News For All) 1629215601
PureGym's response read:
"You can get a full list of the classes and the times they commence at on the homepage of your gym! If you are unable to find this then please drop us a DM with the gym you are interested in can advise you further on this!"
The tweet was deleted soon after, presumably when the person who was answering the tag on autopilot realized what they were actually responding to.
And there goes the interns job— Alfred (@Alfred) 1629215636
Pure gym really ask for a DM from the Taliban— WolfRMC (@WolfRMC) 1629215770
Business is business I guess— MikeyGilby (@MikeyGilby) 1629215767
LMAOOOOO— Vynrixx (@Vynrixx) 1629245326
Not the best thing to reply to I can't lie— maurice (@maurice) 1629215755
PureGym also doesn't have a branch in Afghanistan.
The closest PureGym location is in Poland—2700 miles (4345 km) away.
Well then— kian butterworth (@kian butterworth) 1629286464
How did @PureGym get it wrong on social media again? Did they learn nothing from the Black History Month tweet?— ds \ud83e\udd95 (@ds \ud83e\udd95) 1629271897
PureGym is giving the taliban tips on how to get sweet gainz— JTheTaxMan (@JTheTaxMan) 1629218058
What a missed opportunity, the marketing team should be fired— LESEGO.KHUMALO (@LESEGO.KHUMALO) 1629266221
Ur joking eh https://twitter.com/newsforalluk/status/1427659825513734150\u00a0\u2026— Leah (@Leah) 1629286004
The PureGym team released a statement in regards to their marketing misstep:
"PureGym receives thousands of enquiries from members and the general public on Twitter each week. In this instance a member of the PureHelp team replied to a video unrelated to PureGym having mistaken it as a question about class timetables."
"As soon as the error was identified the tweet was deleted."
The taliban are probably more clued up than 90% of the pt\u2019s working a pure gym anywayshttps://twitter.com/NewsForAllUK/status/1427659825513734150\u00a0\u2026— Breezy (@Breezy) 1629282123
whathttps://twitter.com/NewsForAllUK/status/1427659825513734150\u00a0\u2026— she (@she) 1629246530
Nah this ain\u2019t ithttps://twitter.com/newsforalluk/status/1427659825513734150\u00a0\u2026— ruva\ud83c\udf3c (@ruva\ud83c\udf3c) 1629243254
AfGAINistanhttps://twitter.com/NewsForAllUK/status/1427659825513734150\u00a0\u2026— Adam Wilson (@Adam Wilson) 1629238403
Ffs I was gonna sign up to Brighton pure gym toohttps://twitter.com/NewsForAllUK/status/1427659825513734150\u00a0\u2026— R O B B I E B U R N S \u2b55\ufe0f (@R O B B I E B U R N S \u2b55\ufe0f) 1629237568
Concerns PureGym was actively ignoring the problem, or worse, humanizing the Taliban, seem to be untrue. However, the mistake may be another blow to the gym's brand reputation.
PureGym made headlines previously over an ill-advised "12 Years of Slave" workout promotion.
And on the internet, even when a tweet is deleted, the internet knows how to keep it alive forever.
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