Weight-loss campaigns aimed at First Nations women look like drug marketing in disguise
If you’ve scrolled through social media or watched TV, you’ve probably seen campaigns featuring women describing how difficult weight loss can be. These say you’ve probably “tried everything”. Then, viewers are encouraged to “talk to a doctor” about managing their weight.
At first glance, these and similar campaigns may look like lifestyle-based health promotion messages. But pharmaceutical companies that market popular weight-loss drugs – such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro – are behind them.
In a recent paper, we describe how some of these promotions feature women of colour and First Nations celebrities, no doubt to appeal to this demographic. We argue these campaigns are thinly veiled promotions for weight-loss drugs, even if they don’t mention the drugs’ names.
Here’s why we are so concerned.
From Oprah Winfrey to Casey Donovan
Oprah Winfrey’s 2025 tour to Australia was sponsored by the drug company Lilly, also known as Eli Lilly. The company makes the weight-loss drug Mounjaro. Winfrey did not mention specific weight-loss drugs on her tour. But she appeared in live events where she talked about her weight-loss treatment.
During the 2026 Super Bowl, one of the most watched sporting events worldwide, tennis star Serena Williams was featured in an ad for telehealth platform Ro. In a series of promotional images, she poses as if she’s about to inject herself.
In Australia, Gumbaynggirr/Dunghutti singer Casey Donovan and more recently Yorta Yorta author and curve model Allira Potter have featured in ads or promotional material for telehealth company Juniper. The company provides injectable weight-loss drugs.
Internationally, promotional campaigns for all sorts of medicines aimed at people of colour aren’t new.
But specific medicines are not mentioned in promotional materials for an Australian audience. This is because direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription medicines is illegal in Australia, including via social media and telehealth providers.
It is legal, however, to run “disease awareness campaigns”. These focus on the condition (in this case, obesity) itself without directly naming or promoting specific drugs to treat it. Instead, the campaigns direct consumers to talk to their doctor, who may, in turn, prescribe these drugs.
So what’s wrong?
Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro belong to the class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (often called GLP-1s). They were originally developed for type 2 diabetes. But their use for weight loss has taken the world by storm.
First Nations peoples are disproportionately affected by overweight and obesity.
So such disease awareness campaigns might encourage some people to go to their doctor or clinic for a health check. This may result in lifestyle advice and a safely prescribed medicine. So some may argue these campaigns reach a population that would benefit.
However, there is a clear conflict of interest when the companies behind these campaigns directly benefit from these prescriptions, particularly when they can cost more than A$4,000 a year for a private prescription.
These drugs are not listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for obesity, meaning many people are being marketed a solution to obesity they cannot afford.
A listing on the PBS for obesity would make them more accessible and cost-effective for First Nations people. But this could lead to a spike in prescriptions, which comes with its own risks.
This would raise questions about directing limited public funds to drug companies at the expense of investing in healthy diets, and preventing chronic disease in the first place.
Even without PBS listing for obesity in Australia, sales of this drug class are projected to reach US$150 billion globally by 2030, with much of these profits reinvested into marketing.
As well as the campaigns cloaked as disease awareness, there are telehealth platforms that are marketed on social media. These prescribe and deliver these drugs without needing an in-person assessment.
Widespread marketing leads to increased use and this has raised safety concerns, particularly for people with eating disorders, which may disproportionately affect First Nations people.
Forging links
In research out in recent days, we show drug companies are increasingly engaging with First Nations organisations and communities.
Many of these companies now have Reconciliation Action Plans. Novo Nordisk Australia, the company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, has established an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Advisory Council which it says aims to improve the health of people with diabetes, obesity and related chronic conditions.
But First Nations people told us their reservations about these action plans and the commercial motivations of the pharmaceutical industry.
What we’d like to see instead
First Nations women’s right to choose these drugs as part of their health care is not the issue. We are not concerned about personal choices. But we are concerned with the commercial forces shaping these choices.
First Nations leadership is essential in any initiative that concerns First Nations health.
So rather than efforts led by drug companies, with their clear conflict of interest, we’d like to see Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations involved as leaders in designing culturally safe approaches to preventing and managing obesity.
Medicines may play a role but we need responsible prescribing, free from commercial influence.
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