Serena Williams is known as many things. The GOAT in tennis. An Olympic gold medalist. A storied athlete and mother. And as of recently, an enthusiastic GLP-1 user.
More specifically, a Zepbound user.
This recently acquired knowledge is due to the fact that Williams was announced as the new “celebrity patient ambassador” for direct-to-consumer telehealth company Ro on Aug. 21. The goal of this multiyear campaign is to “destigmatize weight loss medication,” Saman Rahmanian, co-founder and chief product officer at Ro, told Healthcare Brew.
Williams was a patient first and then wanted to share her story with others, he added. (Her husband, Alexis Ohanian, who’s also the co-founder of Reddit, is an investor in the company and on Ro’s board of directors.)
“For us, that’s really the dream, when we have a patient who turns into an advocate,” Rahmanian said. “It gives people the permission to take care of their health and see if [a certain treatment] is right for them.”
Celeb sightings. While celebrity endorsements in pharmaceutical ads isn’t exactly a new marketing trick, it’s usually seen when that celebrity has a specific condition the drug is treating. Ro’s campaign felt different, Mae Karwowski, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency Obviously, told us.
“This just felt like it was made for social [media],” she said. “I think it’s a big leap forward for influencer marketing in the pharma space.”
On top of that, she added, it helps Ro stand out in a crowded (and often confusing) market. Because it isn’t just the drugmakers that stand to benefit from the booming GLP-1 business—which some estimates forecast could reach $95 billion by 2030, and which made up 98% of all obesity drug spending ($22.4 billion) in 2024—but also the telehealth companies like Ro that sell them.
GLP-1s are one of Ro’s “largest categories” it can provide to its 3+ million customers, Rahmanian said, though the company also has fertility, hair loss, skin, and hair treatment offerings.
Navigate the healthcare industry
Healthcare Brew covers pharmaceutical developments, health startups, the latest tech, and how it impacts hospitals and providers to keep administrators and providers informed.
This isn’t the first time Ro has used a celebrity athlete as its GLP-1 ambassador: Former NBA player Charles Barkley was announced as one in April. Both Barkley and Williams have been outspoken about struggling to lose weight, which created more “authenticity,” Rahmanian said.
But this campaign with Williams also “sparked a conversation” about weight loss stigmas and the rise in GLP-1 use, he added.
Pharma’s big break? Featuring Williams in such a prominent role in a GLP-1 campaign could create more of a trend within the pharmaceutical industry overall, Karwowski said, though she added many of Obviously’s pharma clients are in the “early days of influencer marketing” still.
“Pharma companies have sort of played small with influencers,” she said.
The biggest hurdle will be ensuring there’s compliance with various laws and regulations, she added. The FDA has an FAQ list on what an ad has to say, what qualifies as violating the law, and what’s required for a broadcast TV ad vs. an ad featured only online. (See Hims & Hers’s Super Bowl ad, which lawmakers and healthcare experts called out earlier this year for allegedly being “misleading.”)
And while platforms like TikTok require any healthcare products to be FDA compliant, there’s also a growing movement of GLP-1 influencers who document their experiences using various GLP-1s. Which again gets to the “authenticity” of it all: Creators can answer viewers’ questions and track their progress along with any symptoms they may feel, all while followers watch and engage, Karwowski said.
“This is in a very public forum with someone jumping on a livestream and you’re chatting with them. So it does, I think, mark a big shift for pharma overall, and you really can’t ignore social media [for pharma marketing] anymore,” she said.