An ad during Sunday night’s Super Bowl has sparked instant controversy. Hims and Hers Health aired a commercial that not only promoted a product but fired a broadside against the U.S. food and healthcare industries.
The ad, which can be viewed below, claims Americans are obese because of the food they eat and that the weight loss industry isn’t helping.
Industry response
The commercial triggered a sharp rebuke from various health-related organizations. The Partnership for Safe Medicine issued a statement with the headline “Over 100 million Americans just watched a misleading ad at the Super Bowl.”
The organization fired off letters to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Fox Broadcasting, complaining about the ad and pointing out that the attack promoted Hims and Hers own weight loss drug.
“You could tell an American that they’re getting a compounded medicine and they would have no idea what that meant,” the group said in a statement. “That may be a legal disclosure, but that’s not good enough to protect patients who don’t know what the words mean.”
In response, Hims and Hers doubled down, issuing its own statement to media outlets.
“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 company said.
The statement repeated the ad’s claims that “the system is broken,” and accused the industry groups of trying to suppress information about Americans’ options.