New weight loss drugs, old marketing: Gyms and stores revive classic diet schemes for the Ozempic era

Skyrocketing sales for weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s, first made popular via the diabetes treatment Ozempic, have had ripple effects across the global economy. As more companies try to adapt to — and squeeze profit from — the Ozempic craze, they’re taking distinct yet familiar approaches to market the drugs.

Unrelenting demand for Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy has led to ongoing shortages and even boosted Denmark’s GDP last year.

Eli Lilly, which makes similar medications Mounjaro and Zepbound, is now the largest pharmaceutical company in the world and tenth overall with a market cap of around $841 billion.

Food executives have even apparently called the heads of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly for advice on the growing use of the appetite-suppressing medications.

Morgan Stanley analysts anticipate the global market for these drugs will reach $105 billion by 2030. The investment bank also expects the adoption of GLP-1s to reach about 31.5 million people in the United States, about 9% of the nation’s population, by 2035.

With that much money involved, it seems like everyone is trying to cash in on Ozempic-related hype.

The many-faced Ozempic bandwagon

Companies are employing a variety of strategies to advertise GLP-1s and related services.

In January, the upscale gym chain Equinox started educating their senior level coaches on how to train clients on these medications in terms of both exercise and nutrition in what they call their “GLP-1 protocol.”

On its website, Equinox stated that its GLP-1 guide covers “drug background, risk efficacy, relapse management, fat loss programming for exercise, and habit development.”

In April, Costco, the membership warehouse club known for its $1.50 hot dogs, started offering its members prescriptions to these drugs via its telehealth partner Sesame. Its tagline is “Lose weight today. The affordable way.”

More recently, the millennial-skewed telehealth platform Hims & Hers began selling both official and compounded versions of these medications. Its marketing is more wellness-focused with messaging such as: “Mind and body on the same team.”

Emma Laing, a clinical professor and director of dietetics at the University of Georgia, said despite their differences these sale pitches all recall the way diets have been marketed in the past.

“Many of these marketing strategies are similar in that they appeal to the perceived value of thinness in the pursuit of health, happiness, and quality of life,” Laing told Quartz.

Diet culture 2.0

Adrienne Bitar, the author of “Diet and the Disease of Civilization” and lecturer at Cornell University, said companies hawking weight loss services target their messaging depending on the demographic they’re serving.

For example, while looking at the Hims & Hers website, which targets a younger audience, Bitar said she was reminded of one of the first diet books ever published — William Banting’s Letter on Corpulence from 1964.

“It’s very compassionate. Its like ‘Have you tried everything? Nothing works for you? Willpower is not the answer. We’re here to support you on your weight loss journey,” said Bitar. “I think that is a demographic that is more receptive to that type of language.”

Bitar added that the way diets and weight-loss programs are advertised are often “reflective of the bigger concerns of that time.” For example, detox diets which first started to appear in the 1970’s represented “a real uneasiness with an environment, environmental degradation.”

Bitar is now noticing a shift in these programs emphasizing physical strength, wellness, and mental health.

“It’s this sort of euphemism that to be fit and muscular and strong is to be empowered,” Bitar said.

Glossing over the risks

Laing acknowledges that the rise of GLP-1s reflect how weight loss is more complex than willpower, and actually depends on “environmental, genetic, and social influences.”

However, she is concerned companies could be glossing over the short- and long-term risks of these medications. According to Laing, if patients taking GLP-1 treatments are liming their consumption of a variety of foods, they could be at a higher risk of malnutrition, compromised immune systems, and muscle mass loss.

There could also be mental health risks such as depression or disordered eating.

“At the forefront of marketing GLP-1 related services should be consultation with your primary healthcare provider to evaluate your medical history, the potential for food and drug interactions, and the careful management of any side-effects,” Laing said.

She also recommends that patients receiving GLP-1 drugs should be referred to a registered dietician who can serve as an extra layer of supervision of users’ health.