“This is a clear attempt by industry groups to cancel an advertisement that directly calls out how they are part of a system that fails to prioritize the health of Americans.”
Hims & Hers Super Bowl Ad Under Fire From Trade Group, Senators
Story by David Cohen, Paul Hiebert
The Super Bowl debut by digital healthcare company Hims & Hers is now listed on the injury report as questionable, following attempts by a pharmaceutical industry trade group and two senators to block it from airing.
The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) is pushing the Food and Drug Administration to call a timeout on the spot promoting its version of the weight-loss drug Ozempic.
“As a knockoff copy of a prescription drug, the commercial for this product should comply with FDA prescription drug ad rules,” PSM executive director Shabbir Imber Safdar wrote in a letter to the FDA, shared by Quartz. “We request that you act to enforce the laws and guidelines that protect Americans from misleading marketing in health products.”
Hims & Hers Super Bowl Ad Wants Cheap Weight Loss Drugs
Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) chimed in with a letter of their own to the FDA, The New York Times reported, claiming that the Big Game ad “risks misleading patients,” and adding, “Nowhere in this promotion is there any side-effect disclosure, risk, or safety information, as would be typically required in a pharmaceutical advertisement.”
The PSM also wrote a letter to Fox, which is airing Super Bowl 59, asking them to not run the “deeply troubling” spot, Quartz reported.
“This is a clear attempt by industry groups to cancel an advertisement that directly calls out how they are part of a system that fails to prioritize the health of Americans,” Hims & Hers said in a statement. “The system is broken, and this is just another example of how they don’t want Americans to know they have options. We’re calling for change, which means putting the health of Americans first through affordable and available care.”
The 60-second spot, which is scheduled to air during the third quarter of the game, depicts people eating unhealthy foods, with Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” as the soundtrack.
A narrator says, “Welcome to weight loss in America-a $160 billion industry that feeds on our failure. There are medications that work-but they are priced for profits, not patients.” Hims & Hers goes on to point out that 74% of U.S. citizens are overweight and more than 500,000 die from causes related to obesity each year.
he ad does point out that compounded drug products are not evaluated by the FDA, which is relevant, as the regulator permits pharmacies to make compounded or altered versions of drugs that are in short supply, as long as they meet specific regulatory requirements, Quartz reported.
Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, diabetes and weight-loss treatments from Novo Nordisk. Hims & Hers began offering compounded semaglutide injections in May for $199 per month, compared with almost $1,000 for Ozempic and $1,349 for Wegovy.
“It’s clear that the ad has struck a chord, and people are paying attention,” a spokesperson from Hims & Hers told ADWEEK via email. “We’ve called out the system, and now the system is asking that our ad get taken down.”
According to Quartz, advocacy group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, another company that offers weight-loss medications, is a member of the PSM.
Those two companies are boosting production of their GLP-1 medications, which mimic gut hormones that regulate blood sugar and suppress appetite, Quartz reported. They’ve also filed petitions with the FDA to add those medications to its list of drugs deemed too complex to compound safely.
According to television data and analytics firm EDO, four of the top 10 pharmaceutical advertisers during regular-season National Football League games were touting diabetes and weight management drugs.
