• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

Why are so many pharma companies buying ads in the upcoming Super Bowl? (Examples include Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Ro, Hims & Hers and Boehringer Ingelheim.)

The reason could be more than just the marketing perks of the Super Bowl: creating buzz and super-high ratings.

Pharma ads during regular season NFL games in 2025-2026 were 104% more effective than average pharma ads on prime-time broadcast and cable, according to TV measurement firm EDO.  Indeed, a pharma ad would need to air 69 times on the average broadcast or cable prime-time program to generate the same total impact as a single average pharma ad during those regular season games, EDO said.

EDO measures ad effectiveness as the likelihood of generating ad-driven consumer engagement on a per-person, per-second basis. 

Pharma ads during the season were also 9% more effective than during the previous season, and there were more of them: 332 in total over the 18-week season, a 13% increase YoY. That comes out to about 18 NFL game pharma ads weekly.

Eli Lilly’s Zepbound obesity drug, which ran one ad weekly, proved the most effective brand in the research, with 519% higher effectiveness  than the average pharma advertiser. The specific :60 spot shown here, which represented half of Zepbound’s airings, was the season’s most effective individual commercial, with 439% higher effectiveness  than average pharma ads.

In addition to its Zepbound buy, Lilly ran another 12 awareness or corporate ads during the season, with that effort generating 65% more effectiveness than average, and making Lilly Corporate the third most effective NFL brand advertiser. One ad that ran this season was this :30 spot, with Julianne Moore espousing that “Brain Health Matters.”

The second most effective brand was telehealth provider Ro, with 12 ads proving 246% more effective than average. This specific :30 spot, with Serena Williams hawking GLP-1s, representing half of Ro’s airings, was the season’s fourth most effective individual commercial, with 119% higher effectiveness. Ro is bringing Williams back in a new ad for the brand’s Super Bowl debut on Sunday.

Other brands on EDO’s top five most effective list included ads for  Amgen’s Otezla drug for plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, whose 10 airings proved 18% more effective and Novartis’ Pluvicto,  11% more effective over 13 airings. The latter’s ads included this :60 ad, targeted to metastatic prostate cancer patients.

Other top individual commercials included a :60 ad  targeting eosinophilic esophagitis patients from Sanofi/Regeneron’s Dupixent (seven airings 307% more effective), this largely animated :30 Nick Jonas spot for Dexcom’s G7 continuous glucose monitor (five airings, 141% more effective) and this :60 bipolar depression ad for Johnson & Johnson’s Caplyta (seven airings, 25% more effective).