{"id":21783,"date":"2025-02-07T16:19:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21783"},"modified":"2025-02-07T17:29:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:29:56","slug":"hims-and-hers-super-bowl-ad-sparks-controversy-over-weight-loss-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21783","title":{"rendered":"Hims and Hers Super Bowl Ad Sparks Controversy Over Weight Loss Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The spot makes lofty claims about weight-loss drugs offered by the telehealth company Hims & Hers, but says little about risks.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

The first thing the ad<\/a> shows is a scale. Over the soundtrack of Childish Gambino’s anthem \u201cThis is America,\u201d<\/a> a narrator laments the nation\u2019s obesity crisis and \u201cthe system\u201d that is \u201cbuilt to keep us sick and stuck.\u201d It notes the \u201c$160 billion weight-loss industry that feeds on our failure\u201d as images of junk cereal, pie and a cheeseburger flash across the screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething\u2019s broken, and it\u2019s not our bodies,\u201d the narrator says, adding: \u201cThere are medications that work, but they\u2019re priced for profits, not patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minute-long ad, which will run during the Super Bowl, pitches a \u201clife-changing\u201d solution to all this: weight-loss drugs, as offered by the telehealth startup Hims & Hers. Viewers see a fridge stocked with Hims & Hers-branded vials of medications. These are compounded drugs, meaning they haven\u2019t gone through the traditional approval process<\/a> designed to safeguard against risks to consumers \u2014 a point the ad largely glosses over.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Senators Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas, sent a letter to the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration saying the ad \u201crisks misleading patients<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cNowhere in this promotion is there any side-effect disclosure, risk or safety information as would be typically required in a pharmaceutical advertisement,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

The ad has also drawn the ire of some doctors who prescribe obesity drugs, as well as the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a coalition of nonprofit organizations including some that are affiliated with the drug industry. The group sent a letter to the F.D.A. on Thursday calling the ad \u201cdangerous\u201d and warning it only discloses that the medications are compounded briefly and in a small font. The organization called on the Fox Corporation to withdraw the ad.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The spot makes lofty claims about weight-loss drugs offered by the telehealth company Hims & Hers, but says little about risks.The first thing the ad shows is a scale. Over the soundtrack of Childish Gambino’s anthem \u201cThis is America,\u201d a narrator laments the nation\u2019s obesity crisis and \u201cthe system\u201d that is \u201cbuilt to keep us sick and stuck.\u201d It notes the \u201c$160 billion weight-loss industry that feeds on our failure\u201d as images of junk cereal, pie and a cheeseburger flash across the screen.\u201cSomething\u2019s broken, and it\u2019s not our bodies,\u201d the narrator says, adding: \u201cThere are medications that work, but they\u2019re priced for profits, not patients.\u201dThe minute-long ad, which will run during the Super Bowl, pitches a \u201clife-changing\u201d solution to all this: weight-loss drugs, as offered by the telehealth startup Hims & Hers. Viewers see a fridge stocked with Hims & Hers-branded vials of medications. These are compounded drugs, meaning they haven\u2019t gone through the traditional approval process designed to safeguard against risks to consumers \u2014 a point the ad largely glosses over.On Friday, Senators Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas, sent a letter to the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration saying the ad \u201crisks misleading patients.\u201d\u201cNowhere in this promotion is there any side-effect disclosure, risk or safety information as would be typically required in a pharmaceutical advertisement,\u201d they wrote.The ad has also drawn the ire of some doctors who prescribe obesity drugs, as well as the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a coalition of nonprofit organizations including some that are affiliated with the drug industry. The group sent a letter to the F.D.A. on Thursday calling the ad \u201cdangerous\u201d and warning it only discloses that the medications are compounded briefly and in a small font. The organization called on the Fox Corporation to withdraw the ad.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21785,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21786,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21783\/revisions\/21786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}