Wellness, GLP-1 weight loss drugs and the Super Bowl—behind the emerging trend

Recent months have seen the skyrocketing popularity of GLP-1 weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro in both TV ads and cultural awareness. Now, one weight loss provider is taking its message to advertising’s biggest stage with a 60-second spot running during the Super Bowl. Last week, Hims & Hers, the telehealth company, announced its Big Game debut, promoting its GLP-1 weight loss medications as a remedy to the country’s obesity epidemic. “We feel we can bring awareness to a ton of people at the Super Bowl,” said Dan Kenger, chief design officer at Hims & Hers. “There are very few live TV events that we as America all come around and congregate on and this provides a good platform to get that message out there.” Wellness and the Super Bowl—an event known for its gluttonous snacking—don’t typically mix, but this year, a handful of signs show that Americans might be receptive to messages of self-improvement from healthcare advertisers during the game. Along with Hims & Hers, pharmaceutical brand Novartis will make its Super Bowl debut with a 60-second ad for breast cancer awareness. WeightWatchers is also planning a campaign that will run on connected TV and digital channels. The efforts follow last year’s Super Bowl ads from Pfizer and drug maker Astellas. Experts say health care marketing is an emerging category in the Super Bowl as brands recognize the potential for mass awareness. A Harris Poll this week found that 34% of consumers, led by 44% of 18- to 34-year-olds, think health and wellness brands should advertise in the Super Bowl. Recent data from ad measurement platform EDO based on previous NFL games suggests there may be untapped potential with pharmaceutical marketers in the Super Bowl. “They’re not going to want to miss the reach—these are issues that affect all of us,” said Peter Daboll, head of U.S. at Daivid, an AI platform that measures ad effectiveness, noting a bombardment in the last year of ads from the likes of Wegovy and Ozempic. However, he cautioned that purpose-driven themes don’t always land well on Super Bowl Sunday amid an onslaught of celebrities, jokes and raucous entertainment. “You still are going to see a lot of food-related snack ads, candy ads, and this in the middle is going to suck the air out of the room,” he said. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Click here Record scratch Indeed, serious ads promoting dieting have not always hit the mark. For example, WeightWatchers ran a Super Bowl spot in 2015 that likened eating junk food to doing drugs—a connection emphasized by a voiceover from “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul. By following an even more serious ad, the notorious and widely panned so-called “dead boy” spot from Nationwide, the WeightWatchers ad performed worse than executives envisioned, then Senior VP-Marketing Maurice Herrera told Ad Age at the time. “That Super Bowl moment is fun and lighthearted and you want to be entertained,” said one former WeightWatchers executive. “You’re sitting there with friends, it’s one celebrity after another, it’s fun and blingy, high comedy is what works and then there’s a record scratch—that to me in hindsight, was a huge mistake.” NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today However, despite the odd mix of time and place, there could be an opportunity for a large awareness play. The executive noted that half of people watching the Super Bowl have no interest in the actual game. “So if you’re going to take a swing, that’s where you’re talking to a lot of people who don’t care about the rules of the game or what’s going on,” the executive said. In addition, consumers may be more receptive to health care marketing, and specifically GLP-1-related ads, judging by the success of previous advertising this year. For example, the Golden Globe Awards ceremony in early January included weight-loss ads from Eli Lily for its Zepbound and Mounjaro medications, Hims & Hers and WeightWatchers, which has its own GLP-1 program. Globes Host Nikki Glaser even called the event “Ozempic’s biggest night” in her monologue. The Ozempic commercial playing during the Golden Globes is crazy work pic.twitter.com/C5sUluDzac— Spence (@theskellylife) January 6, 2025 Brian Robinson, global chief strategy officer and head of growth at Havas Health Network, which has its own GLP-1 consultancy, said GLP-1s resonate because they represent more than health care—such medications tap into consumers’ desire to be better versions of themselves following the pandemic. That difference helps ads resonate, he added. “You have this big movement that continues to get more compelling to people and it’s driving a big upswing in interest and engagement,” he said, adding that GLP-1s are resonating in culture. He added that celebrity events such as the Golden Globes demonstrate a “validated track record of success.” Untapped potential EDO recently analyzed how pharmaceutical ads performed during the regular NFL season, finding that four of the top 10 prescription drug advertisers focused on diabetes and weight management, led by Ozempic. EDO found that Ozempic’s eight airings during the season generated 136.8 million impressions and were 452% more effective than the 2024-2025 pharma category season average. In addition, the firm found that two of the top 20 Super Bowl ads by consumer engagement in the last four years were from health care-related brands—Cue Health and Dexcom. Last year’s Pfizer spot, which was the first time the pharma giant had advertised its corporate brand in the Super Bowl, saw 1.6 times as much engagement as the median Super Bowl ad from 2020 through 2024, EDO found. For its new “Winning is good. Losing is better,” campaign, which will also run in out-of-home ads in Super Bowl host city New Orleans, WeightWatchers will showcase two personal stories of weight loss, including one from GLP-1 medication. Ad Age Best Places to Work 2025 50 companies doing a standout job See the full list here Since the Hims & Hers Super Bowl spot was released early, Daivid, the ad measurement platform, was able to analyze its viewer reaction. The ad shows aggressive images of belly fat and sagging bodyweight scales alongside fast food such as burgers and soda, ahead of statistics around obesity in America. The second part of the ad promotes Hims & Hers’ weight loss treatments as an affordable and accessible solution. Viewer results of the ad were not positive, Daboll said, noting high indexes on emotions such as disgust, anger, embarrassment and fear. “[Viewers] didn’t want to see fast food or obese people and there’s a lot of that in the ad,” he said. “But sometimes that’s the goal—you want people to feel a bit uncomfortable.” Novartis, which released a teaser for its Super Bowl spot last week, also generated negative emotions that were 25% higher than average, Daivid found. Hims & Hers’ Kenger noted that the brand is using such bold imagery as a tactic to speak to its larger message. “We’re in this public health crisis, but it’s solvable,” he said. “What you’re really seeing culturally in America right now is this impetus to be healthier and to have an understanding of where food is coming from, what exercises to be doing and what drugs you’re putting in your body.” The former WeightWatchers executive noted that by dedicating a large part of the 60-second spot to a message of help, the Hims & Hers spot may be well-positioned to resonate with viewers. “All we did was say society is stacked against you and the button was we can help,” the executive said. “They already have society is stacked against you, but the second half is how can we help, they do have the hope part, the solution part.”

Wellness, GLP-1 weight loss drugs and the Super Bowl—behind the emerging trend

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