Twelve percent of American adults are now using GLP-1, with U.S. patients spending $40 billion on appetite-suppressing drugs in 2024—a figure that is projected to triple by 2030, according to Grand View Research.
At this year’s Super Bowl, GLP-1 brands are seizing on that demand by battling for brand awareness. Each spent upwards of $10 million on 30 and 60-second commercials designed to raise awareness of the medication and tackle the stigma around it.
Zepbound maker Eli Lilly hedged its bets on a pre-game spot.
Elsewhere, its biggest rival, Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy and Mounjaro, spent its advertising dollars on an in-game ad featuring DJ Kahled and John C. Reilly, among a bevy of other celebrities.
Telehealthcare provider Ro, meanwhile, tapped Serena Williams to front its Big Game ad. Elsewhere, Hims and Hers returned for the second year, flicking at the blockbuster drugs without explicitly featuring them.
As these brands prepare for a GLP-1 bowl all of their own, ADWEEK has rounded up the ads they are airing on Super Bowl Sunday.
Hims & Hers says it’s Unfair Rich People Live Longer
Hims & Hers returned to the Super Bowl during the fourth quarter this year with a “hard-hitting and unconventional” message spotlighting America’s wealth and health gap.
“Rich people live longer,” the ad’s voiceover, delivered by Grammy and Academy Award-winning artist Common, stated bluntly in its opening moments.
The national spot leaned into surrealism to make its point: In one scene, surgeons pull back the skin on a seemingly affluent older person’s face, as if tightening it. Elsewhere, a wealthy-looking figure blasts off into space.
This creative direction didn’t mention the GLP-1s that Him and Hers sells, marking an evolution from the brand’s Super Bowl 59 appearance. Last year’s ad centered heavily on the brand providing access to compounded GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, prompting a backlash and debate around telehealth marketing and the boundaries of pharmaceutical advertising.
Novo Nordisk Pushes Wegovy Pill
For its first Super Bowl ad, Novo Nordisk recruited celebrities Kenan Thompson, DJ Khaled, Danielle Brooks, Ana Gasteyer, John C. Reilly, and Danny Trejo to let the 140 million people watching know that there’s “A New Way to Wegovy” in pill form, and they shouldn’t feel embarrassed about taking it.
The ad showed Reilly backing into a car as he admits he’d take a pill that could help him parallel park. Khaled would say ‘yes’ if a pill could turn him into a pro wrestler, and Brooks would take a pill that enabled her to rescue more kittens.
“At the Super Bowl, the whole world tunes in, so we want to be there,” Novo Nordisk marketing svp Edward Cinca told ADWEEK. “The goal is to generate as much awareness [for the pill] as we can.”
Novo’s first weight-loss pill, which costs an average of $149 a month, was approved by the FDA in December. This week, Hims & Hers announced plans to launch a cheaper $49 copycat version, prompting Novo to say it will take legal action against the compound provider.
Ro taps Serena to Banish GLP-1 Stigmas
After announcing tennis legend Serena Williams as a brand ambassador last August, direct-to-consumer healthcare company Ro—which sells GLP-1 medications including Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound—tapped the athlete to front its “Healthier on Ro” Super Bowl in-game ad.
Spanning TV, paid social, and OOH takeovers in cities across the U.S., the campaign aimed to destigmatize the drug and promote its other health benefits beyond weight loss.
Saman Rahmanian, Ro’s co-founder and chief product officer, told ADWEEK that Ro enlisted Williams to “dispel the myth that taking weight loss medications is cheating.”
“We’re using the Super Bowl moment to make sure people are aware there are options—in an inspiring and memorable way,” he added.