Bad marketing travels fast. That's the lesson Reebok learned the hard way this week after ads placed in a handful of locker rooms in Germany made their way stateside via social media sites:

The motivational ad campaign's full tagline is "cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout", but has quickly earned the wrath of social media activists. CheaterVille.com, a US website dedicated to exposing cheaters around the world, wrote a letter to Reebok headquarters threatening to boycott the sports brand unless the ad was removed immediately.

ABC notes there was a wave of outrage over the ads on Twitter:

“Damn #reebok …. you pissed off a lot of women!” Share It Fitness tweeted.

A US spokesman for Reebok expressed his regret that the materials were printed in the first place.