Last year, the telehealth giant used its Super Bowl ad space to confront the obesity crisis. This year, it’s questioning why wealth still determines how long Americans live
Hims & Hers is using this year’s Super Bowl to air out a message it knows will draw criticism.
The health and wellness telehealth platform, which offers GLP-1s, hormone replacement therapies and lab testing for health markers, is declaring that the era of health as a luxury is over.
Much like its bold Big Game debut last year, Hims & Hers opens with a strong message. This time, it’s even more blunt: rich people live longer.
That is how the one-minute ad opens, narrated by rapper and actor Common.
The ad contrasts images of wealthy individuals receiving cosmetic procedures, advanced fitness testing and other longevity-focused treatments with everyday people left watching from afar. It also includes a pointed reference to Jeff Bezos’ trip to space.
“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.”
According to Hims & Hers, research shows that people living in the top 1% live seven years longer, on average, than those living in the bottom 50%, based on median household income.
“This ad was created to feel as disruptive as our business model,” Dan Kenger, chief design officer of Hims & Hers, said. “When you’re challenging a system that has been broken for generations, the design has to feel like a catalyst for change. We’re not showing off products; we’re helping people visualize a future where premium care is accessible for every single person on the planet.”
Andrew Dudum, the co-founder and CEO of Hims & Hers, said the campaign reflects mounting economic pressure on households and frustration with a healthcare system that often ties cost to outcomes.
“As the rising cost of living forces Americans to make impossible choices, too many people are forced to treat health and longevity like a luxury,” Dudum said. “That changes today. Hims & Hers is built on the simple principle that the platform only succeeds when the patient does. It’s time to start democratizing access to the kind of proactive, personalized care that all people deserve.”
In a blog post published ahead of the game, Hims & Hers said it expects the ad to “ruffle some feathers,” arguing that discomfort is an inevitable response to challenging a healthcare system it views as unfair. Still, it said the backlash is a “small price to pay” to expose what it described as a glaring reality.
“If our message makes the industry uncomfortable, it’s because their profits rely on the many but benefit the few,” the post reads.
The ad’s theme is timely. While the Super Bowl is typically a lighthearted Sunday, this year it arrives amid a broader sense of economic unease and mounting anxiety about healthcare costs in particular.
According to a new KFF Health Tracking Poll published this week, two-thirds of Americans say they worry about being able to afford health care for themselves and their families, making it the top financial concern, ahead of food, housing and utilities. More than half say their health care costs have risen over the past year, and a majority expect them to become even less affordable in the year ahead.
The unease extends beyond health care. The Wall Street Journal reported a pickup in layoffs across major U.S. companies on Thursday, including Amazon and UPS, a signal that the employment picture may be softening.
