Hims & Hers aired a Super Bowl ad for weight loss drugs. It alarmed health experts and senators.

During the Super Bowl, Hims & Hers Health aired a commercial called “Sick of the System.” But before the 60-second spot was played on Fox Sunday night, the ad — which deems obesity “America’s deadliest epidemic,” criticizes the $160 billion weight loss industry and calls the health care system “broken,” all while offering the brand’s own “affordable, doctor-trusted” compounded semaglutide as a solution — was called “misleading” and “disparaging” by experts, advocates and politicians. The company, however, disputes the claims.

In response to complaints made publicly by the Partnership for Safe Medicine and the Obesity Society, Hims & Hers provided Yahoo Life with the following statement:

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. 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.

What’s happening

Set to Childish Gambino’s “This is America,” the telehealth company declares that "something's broken and it's not our bodies." The ad says that "there are medications that work, but they're priced for profits, not patients," and features images of injection pens meant to represent brand-name weight loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy. "The system wasn't built to help us, it was built to keep us sick and stuck," the narrator says before offering Hims & Hers as the solution to the fact that 74% of Americans are overweight: by providing Americans with "affordable, doctor-trusted, life-changing" weight loss medications.

On YouTube, where the commercial debuted at the end of January, viewers are sent to a webpage that states, “Big Pharma doesn’t want you to see this” at the top.

Hims & Hers believes that is where the controversy lies. “We called on the industry and said that they need to change — and their reaction is trying to shut this ad down,” says a representative for the company. “To us, it's clear that it's not about the ad — it's about the message.”

The backlash

In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, health care groups and lawmakers alleged that Hims & Hers didn't abide by advertising standards and were purposely withheld information from consumers. In a letter to Dr. Catherine Gray, director of the office of prescription drug promotion at the Food and Drug Administration, the executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines points out that Hims & Hers directly references the “life-changing weight loss medications” that it offers without clarifying that it is a compounded semaglutide and, therefore, isn’t FDA-approved. “The disclaimer appears only briefly in tiny gray font at the bottom of the screen that is nearly imperceptible to an average viewer, without any accompanying audio disclosure,” the letter reads.

Also, the ad lacks any mention of possible side effects of the medication despite the FDA’s warning that compounded drugs “can be risky for patients” as a result of not undergoing the administration’s safety, effectiveness and quality reviews. This was also mentioned in another letter written by the Partnership for Safe Medicines to executives at Fox demanding that the ad “be withdrawn to protect public safety.”

“We adhere to all applicable laws and regulations regarding advertising,” says Hims & Hers. Compounded medications are subject to a separate set of standards than those that are FDA-approved. Another letter addressed to Dr. Sarah Brenner, acting commissioner of the FDA, written by senators Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas, on Friday calls this “a regulatory loophole” that needs fixing.

“We plan to soon introduce bipartisan legislation to close this gap, so that patients are not deceived by advertisements that glaringly omit critical safety and side effect information,” the letter reads. “But we believe FDA may already have the authority to take enforcement action against marketing that may mislead patients about this company’s products.”

What viewers should know

The Obesity Society urges viewers “to speak with their medical doctor regarding obesity medications,” according to a press release.

The organization made additional comments about the content of the ad, claiming that the imagery reinforces harmful weight stigma and bias. “Hims & Hers portrays obesity with images of large headless abdomens which does create a visceral negative response by the viewer, and they unfortunately cast a disparaging connotation for people living with obesity,” says Dr. Marc-Andrew Cornier, the organization’s president.

Reaction

After millions of people watched the ad, critiques were less concerned about the minutiae and largely focused on the bigger message. While the first half of the spot got rave reviews, the "bait and switch" was called "misleading," "hypocritical" and "dystopian" for the ad's efforts to expose the health care system's issues all while trying to profit from them. "Stop preying on people under the guise of criticizing healthcare industry," one person wrote in an Instagram comment on the company's page. Another said, "How can you miss the point so badly??? The system IS broken. It is NOT our bodies. You ARE chasing profit. Try again."