Super Bowl Sunday is the holy grail of advertising thanks to its massive viewership, with an average of 127.7 million Americans tuning in to the big game in 2025 alone. That same year, Hims & Hers became the first company to advertise GLP-1 weight loss medications during the Super Bowl — but it wasn’t without controversy.
The 60-second ad, called “Sick of the System,” targeted the “broken” U.S. health care system and touted its more affordable compounded semaglutide as a solution to the obesity epidemic. The brand was accused of being “hypocritical” and “preying on people” while “chasing profit” and was even called a threat to public safety. But now the game has changed.
Hims & Hers is rolling out a new Super Bowl ad for its GLP-1s this year — and plenty of companies are joining it this time around. Ro, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are all running Super Bowl ads for their weight loss medications, marking a big cultural shift from last year. While this isn’t the first time these companies have advertised their GLP-1 products, it’s the biggest stage they’ll ever be on.
Why GLP-1 ads will be all over the Super Bowl
There’s a reason why so many GLP-1 ads are coming your way on gameday. Nearly 1 in 8 American adults have taken a GLP-1 medication, which is a class of drugs used to support weight loss, along with treating diabetes, heart disease and several other chronic medical conditions. Ozempic and Wegovy are GLP-1 medications, while Mounjaro and Zepbound are technically dual GLP-1 and GIP agonists (meaning, they act on two types of receptors in the body) — even though they’re often lumped in with GLP-1s.
The wave of Super Bowl ads promoting these products shows how normalized their use has become, Americus Reed, professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, tells Yahoo. “There was some stigmatization around them before, but that is becoming less and less,” he says. “Celebrities and influencers have been open about using these products, and it creates a permission structure that these are OK.”
Doctors who prescribe these medications say the rise in advertising is largely a good thing. “Evidence-based treatments of obesity are underutilized in America and around the world,” David Sarwer, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, tells Yahoo. “If the commercials lead to people thinking about using these medications to manage their weight and health, that is a very good result.”
With that in mind, here’s what we know about the GLP-1 ads set to air this Super Bowl Sunday.
Who’s running GLP-1 ads for Super Bowl Sunday?
Pretty much all of the big players in the weight loss drugs space will be running Super Bowl ads. That includes pharmaceutical companies promoting FDA-approved medications and brands that are selling cheaper, compounded versions that are technically not FDA-approved. Each ad is slightly different — and at least one (from Eli Lilly) is currently a mystery. Here’s what we know.
Ro
For its ad, Ro, which sells Wegovy, Zepbound and Ozempic, has partnered with tennis star Serena Williams, who revealed in 2025 that she takes a GLP-1 for weight loss. The ad will launch the brand’s “Healthier on Ro” campaign. (Ro, working with Novo Nordisk — the makers of Wegovy — launched an FDA-approved GLP-1 pill in January.)
In the spot, Williams shares that she’s lost 34 pounds after a year on a GLP-1 medication and says her blood sugar is stable and that her knee joints are under less stress. “I’m moving better on Ro,” she says in the ad. “I’m feeling better on Ro.” In a recent Instagram post for Ro, the athlete went into more details, sharing lab test results and saying that some of her health stats are even better than when she was playing tennis professionally. “Since being on GLP-1s, my lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease has decreased by 19%,” she says, adding that her total cholesterol levels have improved by 30%. “I’m not surprised at how good I feel.”
Hims & Hers
Hims & Hers, which sells compounded semaglutide that’s not FDA-approved, is back with another ad called “Rich People Live Longer” — and based on the name alone, it will more than likely get people talking. It’s narrated by rapper and actor Common and focuses on wealth disparities. Namely, how people in the top 1% of earners live an average of seven years longer than those in the bottom 50%.
“All that money doesn’t just buy more stuff. It buys more time,” Common says in the ad. “The wealth gap is a health gap.” The ad talks about the range of services Hims & Hers offers, including “weight loss treatments that can be microdosed to fit your goals.”
That’s not the only buzz Hims & Hers is generating: It just launched its own compounded semaglutide pill at $49 for the first month and $99 after, with the purchase of a five-month plan — that’s $100 less than Novo Nordisk’s new Wegovy weight loss pill.
Novo Nordisk
The makers of Ozempic and Wegovy are leaning on a mix of star power and quirky humor to hype their products — more than likely their successful weight loss medications — on gameday. Novo Nordisk has shared several Super Bowl ad teasers, which include DJ Khaled, along with actors Kenan Thompson, Ana Gasteyer, Danielle Brooks and Danny Trejo. Each online personality is featured in silly scenes — including one with a talking cat called Mr. Wiggles — along with a text overlay that says “2.8.26” in reference to Super Bowl Sunday. (The teasers on Instagram have since been taken down.)
Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly has confirmed that it will run a Super Bowl ad to promote its weight loss medication Zepbound, but details are scarce. (Eli Lilly did not respond to requests from Yahoo for details.) In January, the company aired a 60-second commercial called “My Focus” that addressed the stigma surrounding obesity. The ad featured a young man sharing that he’s been dieting since he was 12 years old. “My health is my focus,” he says, “and my body is nobody’s business but mine.”
Experts say these ads signal a cultural shift
While GLP-1 medications have been available for years, they’ve only recently exploded in popularity because of how effective they are at helping people lose weight. “These drugs have revolutionized weight management and, in many ways, diabetes management,” Dr. Leonid Poretsky, chief of endocrinology at Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital, tells Yahoo.
While some experts say commercials like these can help lessen the stigma of taking weight loss medications, others say it’s not all good news. “The primary concern is the medicalization of appearance,” Tony Yang, professor of health policy at George Washington University, tells Yahoo. “Super Bowl advertising reaches beyond patients with BMI over 30 to anyone with aesthetic insecurity, fueling trends in microdosing and cosmetic weight management that divert drugs from metabolic necessity to vanity application.” These drugs also aren’t cheap, and that messaging is often lost in advertising, he adds.
But the advertising is simply reflecting what’s happening in medicine and pop culture, argues Dr. Mir Ali, medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif. “People have become much more aware of these medications,” he tells Yahoo. “They’re not appropriate for everyone, but, for certain patients, it’s a viable option. A lot of providers are encouraging people to take these medications.”
