• by Les Luchter , February 7, 2025

Pfizer is again fighting cancer during the Super Bowl.

Last year, Pfizer’s first-ever Big Game spot depicted Galileo, Copernicus, Isaac Newton and other legendary scientists lip-synching to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” all leading up to the on-screen graphic, “Here’s to the next fight. LetsOutdoCancer.com.”

This time around, Pfizer’s :60 buy, titled “Knock Out,” features a boy in boxing trunks symbolizing the battle against cancer as LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” plays on the soundtrack. On-screen graphics then declare, “Hey cancer, we're gonna knock you out.”

This ad is focused more on Pfizer’s own cancer-fighting work than last year’s spot, which appeared just two months following the firm’s $43 billion acquisition of cancer biotech firm Seagen.  The new ad declares that “Pfizer is fighting for eight cancer breakthroughs by 2030” and suggests that viewers “join the fight at PfizerForAll.com.”

That site includes a link to Pfizer’s "Pipeline," a rundown of upcoming drugs, where users are told they can learn more about those eight planned breakthroughs. But all Pfizer has said so far is that they’ll fall into four key tumor areas: breast, genitourinary (e.g., prostate, bladder), thoracic and hematology. 

“Knock Out,” which will run during the first quarter of Sunday’s game, was created in collaboration with Publicis Groupe - Le Truc, Leo NY, Collective, and others.  

The ad marks the t beginning of a larger campaign, Pfizer tells Marketing Daily.

A key element of the effort will be a partnership with LL Cool J and his wife, bone cancer survivor Simone Smith, who will use social media to share their personal experiences with cancer as well as emphasizing the importance of early detection, the company says. 

The social media aspect has already begun through a Super Bowl teaser that dropped yesterday afternoon. The 10-second video shows the rapper playing with a football and an ending tag, “See you at the game,” with the Pfizer logo.

Additional teasers will be posted Saturday and Sunday mornings, with another campaign post set for next Thursday.

Smith, a bone cancer survivor, previously launched the  "Beat Cancer Like a Boss" campaign in partnership with the American Cancer Society (ACS), which featured commercials starring her husband and other celebrities.  She also donates a portion of the proceeds from every sale of her jewelry line, "Simone I. Smith Jewelry," to ACS.

Pfizer joins Novartis and Hims & Hers as pharma firms advertising in this year’s Super Bowl.

The Pfizer Super Bowl spot comes just days after Pfizer CEO Albert Boura singled out cancer treatments as a key area he hopes to work on together with the new Trump administration.

In other Pfizer news, the company yesterday announced awards of $1.75 million to seven U.S. nonprofits for the purpose of addressing “systemic health disparities.”

The nonprofits include the National Urban League, National Council of Urban Indian Health, and GLMA (“Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality”).

Earlier this week, the latter joined a suit against the Trump administration over its policy of withholding federal funding to medical institutions that provide gender-affirming care to minors.

Last week, Pfizer settled a lawsuit brought by Do Not Harm, a right-wing medical advocacy group. Terms of the agreement: that the company include whites and Asians in its Breakthrough Fellowship Program. Pfizer launched the program in 2021 specifically “to advance diversity, equity and inclusion for Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic and Native Americans” at the company.