It’s Time!

The Super Bowl is Sunday, and whether you’re all in for football or just in it for the snacks, there’s something for everyone—including Puppy Bowl XXII. This year, 150 dogs from 72 shelters compete, with senior pups taking center stage in a halftime showdown between Team Oldies and Team Goldies. It’s a reminder that older pets deserve love, homes, and second chances too.

Halftime features Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican-born American artist and one of the world’s most-streamed musicians, who made history at the 2026 Grammys with the first all-Spanish Album of the Year. Add the commercials—funny, heartfelt, sometimes puzzling—and it’s clear the Super Bowl is about far more than football.

And one type of ad has become impossible to ignore: prescription drugs.

How Drug Ads Took Over
Before the 1900s, prescription drugs faced little oversight and were marketed only to physicians. Advertising directly to consumers was considered inappropriate.

That changed in 1981, when Merck ran the first modern direct-to-consumer ad for its pneumonia vaccine, Pneumovax, in Reader’s Digest. Two years later, Boots Pharmaceutical ran TV and print ads for Rufen, a prescription-strength ibuprofen rival to Motrin, with a $1.50 rebate on 100-tablet bottles. The prescription price wars had begun!

After debate, the FDA allowed direct-to-consumer advertising, provided it met the same standards as physician-directed promotions. By the late 1980s, prescription drug ads had become a permanent—and powerful—part of the media landscape.

Super Bowl Spotlight
With over 100 million viewers expected for the Seahawks–Patriots matchup, Super Bowl Sunday is America’s biggest advertising stage. This year, five pharmaceutical and telehealth brands are vying for attention.

Two pharma companies focus on diagnostic tests. Novartis promotes a prostate cancer blood test with the playful tagline “Relax your tight end,” while Boehringer Ingelheim highlights the uACR test, which detects albumin in urine—an early sign of kidney damage. High blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes are major risk factors for chronic kidney disease, which raises the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other serious cardiovascular events.

For some, 30 seconds isn’t enough. Novo Nordisk bought a rare 90-second slot for its new Wegovy pill, with significant time devoted to Important Safety Information. Telehealth firm Ro stars Serena Williams in a 30-second ad, focusing on cholesterol, blood sugar, and joint stress instead of before-and-after weight-loss imagery.

Hims & Hers takes a different approach. Narrated by Common, the ad spotlights healthcare affordability, framing the wealth gap as a health gap. With Hims & Hers, he says, everyone can “get the best of everything: The same science, the same access, no connections required. Now that’s rich.” The message resonates—but the ad raises concerns.

Buyer Beware
The Hims & Hers ad promotes Grail’s Galleri blood test, designed to detect more than 50 cancers before symptoms appear. The ad shows a man checking his phone in a car: “No cancer signal detected.”

Grail cautions that results need follow-up testing, and false positives or negatives can occur. While the Galleri test is performed in a certified lab but has not been cleared by the FDA. Grail is seeking approval, a key step toward insurance coverage.

The company is also under scrutiny for its weight-loss pill with the same active ingredient as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, priced at $49 versus Wegovy’s $149 price tag. Novo Nordisk plans legal action to protect patients and the U.S. drug approval framework. Hims & Hers claims although the pill isn’t FDA-approved, but as a compounded medication, it can remain on the market.

The Big Picture
By the end of Super Bowl Sunday, one thing is certain: a champion will be crowned. Beyond that—best commercial, best halftime show, best takeaway—opinions will vary.

And that’s okay.

Just as there’s no single takeaway from the Super Bowl, there’s no single American story. On the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, we’re reminded that progress comes from voices once pushed to the margins. Diversity isn’t a footnote—it’s the engine of change.

As Maya Angelou wrote, “In diversity there is beauty, and there is strength.” That truth shows up every time millions of Americans experience the same moment through different eyes.

Happy reading,
Suzanne Daniels, Ph.D.