On their morning commutes this spring, New Yorkers have been greeted with ads that promise “a weekly shot to lose weight.” Paid for by telehealth company Ro, the subway ads include a picture of a woman injecting herself in the stomach with a shot, while directing viewers to a website plugging Ro’s “Body Program,” which includes coaching and diagnostic testing.

At the heart of the program is a drug called Wegovy that is upending the $450 billion weight loss industry, and whose rising popularity will induce significant changes in diet and wellness marketing in the years to come, according to experts. 

Wegovy is a lower dose form of Ozempic, a drug that recently gained widespread attention with celebrities and influencers using it to lose weight, despite its often high price point—up to about $1,600 per month without insurance. (Wegovy is priced around the same.) Media attention has included a New York magazine piece headlined “Life After Food?” and an Atlantic article titled “In the Age of Ozempic, What’s the Point of Working Out?” 

Also read: How marketers are approaching the wellness space

But when it comes to marketing, the questions about how wellness brands might capitalize on the drugs are much more complicated than those headlines suggest. Experts agree that it will be challenging for marketers at diet, weight loss, and some exercise companies to avoid acknowledging these types of drugs in their marketing—but how they go about it will vary. 

Some brands, including WeightWatchers and Ro, are forming partnerships with drug providers to incorporate semaglutide, the medication sold under brand names such as Wegovy and Ozempic, in comprehensive diet and nutrition offerings. But other brands could choose to stay drug-free, portraying their solutions as “no injections necessary,” said Kaitlyn Lacy, executive producer at Jam3, a Media.Monks design and experience agency that has worked on marketing efforts for Noom, Nike and the pharmaceutical industry.

WeightWatchers plots move

Wegovy and Ozempic work by suppressing a person’s appetite and have been known to help many people lose around 12% of body mass, on average, according to health providers. Ozempic was specifically approved by the FDA in 2017 for Type 2 diabetes use, while Wegovy was approved by the FDA in 2021 for weight loss. 

WeightWatchers raised eyebrows in early March when it announced plans to acquire subscription telehealth company Sequence, a company whose offering includes access to semaglutide drugs. WeightWatchers has not detailed its exact plans for Sequence, but Chief Marketing Officer Amanda Tolleson suggested in an interview it would be part of a broader offering. “The FDA is very clear that when you’re on these medications, you should be pairing them with a behavioral program,” Tolleson said. “They’re not in and of themselves meant to be used alone.

“There's going to be a lot of onus on the brands moving into the space to lead the way in terms of education, and myth-busting, and addressing the bias that is coming out very clearly already as these drugs hit consumer culture,” Tolleson predicted. She suggested that one messaging strategy from WeightWatchers could involve “amplifying the voices” of those in the medical community who believe obesity is a chronic disease, as well as those who have experienced it themselves.

As for Ro, its subway ads were an attempt to “demystify” the idea of injecting oneself with a needle (which is inside the sleek-looking pen in the ads), said Ro Co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano. When people think about injecting themselves with something, they tend to assume the worst, Reitano said. But once they see that the pen is actually “pretty attractive … the fear starts to subside a little bit,” he continued. 

Not everyone is happy with the ads, however. Actress Sophie Turner reposted the tweet below to her Instagram story, while some argued the ads are triggering for people with eating disorders. 

Reitano responded that “not every campaign will be loved by everyone. But at least we felt really good that this spoke directly to a lot of people who have overweight and have obesity.” Those pictured in the ads have the body mass index suggested for use of the medication, he added.

Brands that offer the new drugs should make it clear that they aren’t just a part of the wellness industry anymore, but the medical industry too, said Jessica Clements, head of strategy at Jam3. After all, prescription drugs are involved now. She also suggested that these brands promote weight training, as semaglutide is known to “dramatically reduce the amount of muscle individuals have.” 

Lacy said semaglutide could become a “tool in the toolbox” for some health and wellness companies, promoted along with the need for “mindful eating, exercise, drinking water, [and] self care that we see currently.” 

Social media will also play a key messaging role, Lacy said. “When starting a new medication, it can feel scary, and hearing other people’s stories can be very comforting,” she said, adding that she could see social posts from brands that offer up “people like you who have taken a plunge” and started one of these weight loss drugs. 

Lacy said she’s been following some Reddit threads about semaglutide users, and that “it really does seem like there's like a sense of community and support that is gathered around people struggling with obesity and going through this.” 

Partnerships with drug providers could also expand beyond the traditional weight loss industry to include fitness brands, said Stephen Kiely, CEO of Dentsu, Canada. “As people start to potentially lose weight on Ozempic, perhaps their desire to exercise more might go up,” he said. “Imagine what a partnership between a Peloton could look like with an Ozempic—building out that full ecosystem for somebody as a lifestyle versus sort of just a one off diet drug.”

Picking a side

Brands such as WeightWatchers not only have their own marketing dollars funding the shift to semaglutide—the ads from the drugs themselves could benefit them, too.

Ozempic spent $42.5 million in national TV ad spend between Jan. 1 and May 7 of this year, garnering 3.55 billion household TV ad impressions, according to iSpot data.

Companies such as Ro and WeightWatchers seem to have more creative freedom in their own campaigns involving these drugs than the drug makers themselves do. That's because the FDA requires them to market the drugs consistent with how they were approved by the regulator; Ozempic, for instance, can only promote that it helps with Type 2 diabetes, not weight loss.

“I think this is the first time we’ve really seen this, where these telehealth companies are finding a loophole for how you can market drugs,” Clements said. “They’re able to directly go to consumers and talk to both the brand names as well as the benefits.

“The brands that are probably going to do the best are the ones that actually partner with those companies that can talk about all the benefits and the brand names that have the biggest budget to market,” Clements said. She added that those are the drugs that will “win out.” 

So it’s not necessarily going to be about which drug works the best, Clements said—the “winner” will be the one that has the strongest marketing engine behind it. 

It’s possible that not every health and wellness company will add semaglutide to their business plan. But according to Clements, ignoring the drugs in their marketing efforts is a losing strategy, as people struggling with obesity might be turned off by companies that aren’t adding the medical component to their program. 

“They might not feel those brands are empathetic to them,” Clements said. “If they don't feel like that particular brand is acknowledging that it is a medical condition … they could just feel like that brand doesn't understand them. … They might just not feel like they're being seen and heard by those brands.”

Of course, taking drugs to lose weight still carries a stigma, which could provide a marketing opening to brands that don’t want to offer them. 

Messaging such as “no side effects” or “a-non pharmaceutical way to jumpstart your health,” could work well, said Jason Harris, co-founder and CEO of Mekanism, which has worked with health and wellness brands such as Whoop and Peloton. Side effects for semaglutide drugs can include stomach pain and discomfort, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“The one key opportunity for companies who are competing against drugs like this would be to really lean into the fact that right now, my understanding is, that once you start taking these drugs, you might never get off of them, you might have to be taking them indefinitely,” or risk gaining the weight back, Clements said. Research in a peer-reviewed journal also suggests that the weight lost from semaglutide is likely to return after one stops taking the drug. 

“In a sense, these drugs then can almost become quite controlling, and really take away your freedom. And I could see other companies and brands in this space really leaning into that, and then starting to ensure that their brand is associated with helping people to maintain their freedom, and not being dependent on anything but themselves,” Clements said, adding that “self-empowerment” could become a large part of brands in this space that choose not to double-down on semaglutide drugs.