Hims & Hers is returning to the Super Bowl this year with what it describes as a “hard-hitting and unconventional” message, airing another 60-second spot in the fourth quarter. This time, the telehealth company’s Super Bowl spot is arguing that America’s widening wealth gap has quietly become a health gap.
“Rich people live longer,” the ad’s voiceover, delivered by Grammy and Academy Award-winning artist Common, states bluntly in its opening moments. Visually, the spot leans 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. In another, a person pedals a stationary bike while wearing an oxygen mask. Elsewhere, a wealthy-looking figure blasts off into space — a not-so-subtle nod to the extreme lengths the ultra-rich go to in pursuit of longevity.
According to Dan Kenger, Hims & Hers’ chief design officer, that opening shot — and everything surrounding it —was “deliberately done.”
Over the scenes, the voiceover ticks through offerings that feel clinical: “custom-formulated peptides,” “preventive care,” and “a specialist on call.” The ad also highlights Hims & Hers’ push into diagnostic testing, positioning lab work and blood testing as a way to give patients what the company calls a “complete snapshot” of their health.
“The sad truth is,” Kenger said, “rich people live longer than poor people.” Much of that, he added, can be attributed to wealthier Americans’ access to medications and treatments and ability to be proactive in pursuing measures to extend their life.
That framing marks an evolution from Hims & Her’s last year’s Super Bowl appearance, which centered heavily on the brand providing access to compounded GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. The ad triggered criticism from lawmakers and health advocacy groups over whether it sufficiently disclosed risks or the FDA approval of the medications being promoted. The backlash thrust Hims & Hers into a broader debate about telehealth marketing, compounded drugs, and the boundaries of pharmaceutical advertising.
This year’s creative avoids spotlighting a single product, and instead zooms out to critique the broader health system — though the company is still clearly betting on provocation. The ad was developed entirely in-house. Tools including Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s Sora and NanoBanana were used during the creative exploration phase, though not in the final spot itself, Kenger said.
The timing, Kenger added, is deliberate. One year into a new presidential administration, he said the cultural conversation around food, health, and personal responsibility has shifted. Kenger pointed to what he described as a renewed “war on sugar” and changes to federal dietary guidance. Though, of course, the Super Bowl remains dominated by ads for soda, snacks and celebrity excess.
“The Super Bowl is Doritos and Pepsi and sugar, sugar, sugar — celebrity, celebrity, celebrity,” he said. “People don’t want to put this shit in their body anymore. They want to take control.”