Eli Lilly is keeping pace amid its Foundayo launch with a new celebrity spokesperson and fresh campaign for the oral obesity drug.
Comedian and actress Leanne Morgan has become the face of Lilly’s new “Life Doesn’t Slow Down” campaign, bringing her “signature candor” and real experience as a Foundayo patient to the company’s marketing push by encouraging others to talk about weight management options with their doctors.
Morgan, currently on a comedy tour throughout the U.S., is a busy “wife, mama and grandmama,” she explained in a company press release. After years attempting to balance her career and home life while trying to manage her weight with diet and exercise, she struck up a conversation with her doctor to evaluate other options.
"I tried to manage my weight with diet and exercise alone, but it just wasn't enough,” Morgan explained. “So, I quit putting it off, made time to talk to my doctor about options, and together we decided Foundayo was a good fit for me. It's part of my routine now, right along with diet and exercise."
Weight can be a sensitive topic that isn’t always easy to talk about, but Morgan has built a career on “talking about what other women are thinking,” with weight management being no exception, Lilly explains. “Life Doesn’t Slow Down” looks to bring that conversation to a broader audience.
"Leanne has a gift for making personal conversations feel relatable, including talking with a doctor about health and weight loss goals," the company’s SVP and chief marketing officer, consumer, Lina Polimeni, commented. "At Lilly, we believe conversations about weight are conversations about health, and we're grateful to have a partner like Leanne to champion this message."
As Morgan puts it, “life doesn't slow down for anybody, and there's no such thing as the right time."
“If you've tried diet and exercise for years, don't be shy about asking your doctor about your weight loss medicine options, like Foundayo," she added in the release. "That to-do list will still be there tomorrow, I promise."
In a 75-second TV spot, Morgan is introduced as “a new Foundayo patient” in a scene that takes place in her dressing room. The comedian sits down and discusses how the drug can fit in with a busy lifestyle to another woman, who is disclosed as a paid actor and holds up outfit options for Morgan while talking through details from Foundayo’s label.
“Now is perfect to talk to your doctor about Foundayo,” Morgan says at the end of the ad, in her signature southern drawl. “I sure did.”
In a shorter video for social media, Morgan quickly runs through her to-do list during a wardrobe check, briefly discussing Foundayo with the same actress before being rushed off to stage.
Morgan and “Life Doesn’t Slow Down” appear on Lilly’s Foundayo partnerships webpage, which gives a brief description of the campaign and includes a direct tag to Morgan’s Instagram account. The comedian is the second celebrity partner to appear on the page after lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, who appeared in Foundayo’s recent “House Rules” campaign.
Stewart, like Morgan, encourages others to discuss weight management options with their doctor. However, unlike Morgan, her ads come with a disclaimer that Stewart is not taking Foundayo, which attracted some controversy online.
Still, controversial or not, the recognizable face proved successful, with Lilly’s U.S. president Ilya Yuffa attributing a recent uptake in consumer awareness in part to the campaign during an earnings call last month. The exec added that Lilly’s share of new prescriptions in the U.S. oral obesity market is approaching “four out of 10,” which he described as “good progress overall.”
Foundayo’s third-quarter sales came in at $184 million, falling short of analyst and Wall Street expectations as the drug’s U.S. launch continues to heat up after its April 1 FDA approval.
Aside from its celebrity marketing push, the company has been looking to grow Foundayo and catch up with obesity rival Novo through expanded access programs. For one, the GLP-1 Bridge program for Medicare Part D patients has seen roughly “seven out of 10” older adult participants using a Lilly medicine since it launched this summer, Yuffa said, highlighting “good growth and uptake of orals and Foundayo” despite most patients in the program opting for an injectable.
And last week, telehealth giant Hims & Hers struck a deal with Lilly allowing it to offer Foundayo and the company’s injectable Zepbound on its platform. The arrangement gives the “millions of people” who use Hims & Hers a “simple, more direct way to get FDA-approved Lilly medicine at an affordable price if prescribed,” Yuffa said in a statement.