Days After Showing What Her Body Looks Like On GLP-1s, Serena Williams Is Facing Backlash Over Her “Irresponsible” And “Dystopian” Weight Loss Drug Commercial

This post discusses weight loss and body image.

In August, she told People, “GLP-1 helped me enhance everything that I was already doing — eating healthy and working out,” adding, “I feel really good and healthy. I feel light physically and light mentally.”

And last month, Serena said that her life has changed “for the better” since she started using the medication, noting that it improved her blood sugar and cholesterol. “It's more about ... not even the weight loss, but it's about longevity,” she told TODAY, adding, “I think, for me, GLP-1s are a lifetime thing. There's a time when you can take it differently, but I feel like it's just a part of my story and a part of my health journey.”

Serena’s use and glowing promotion of weight loss medication has repeatedly sparked mixed reactions online, with one notable post questioning, “If even a super athlete can’t have the ‘correct’ body - where’s the hope for the rest of us?”

And this line of discourse has taken off even further following Sunday night’s Super Bowl LX, which featured a commercial starring Serena promoting weight loss medication.

Advertising the digital healthcare company Ro — which has largely been invested in by her husband, Alexis Ohanian — Serena says in the ad, “I’m on Ro. Thirty-four pounds down on GLP-1s. Healthier on Ro. Supported on Ro.”

“FDA-approved GLP-1s options. Now even in a pill,” she says, adding, “Weight loss expertise I trust.”

Serena goes on to say that she’s “moving better” and “feeling better” on Ro, before concluding, “I’m Serena Williams. This is me on Ro.”

Several people have since called out the ad, especially given that it aired during an event as widely-viewed as the Super Bowl. “Normalizing these drugs for those already at a healthy weight is dangerous and irresponsible. That’s the root of most people’s issue with it,” one user said, while another described the commercial as “dystopian.”

“If an elite athlete needs to take drugs to lose weight, what hope is there for us peasants?” someone asked. “I'm sure drugs like this are life-saving for some people. But endorsing it to promote a certain kind of look doesn't sit well with me. Weight loss should be for health reasons, prescribed by a doctor, not to conform to and reinforce unhealthy body image,” another person suggested.

“what a horrible thing to promote as an athlete oh my god,” one person tweeted. Someone agreed, “Serena Williams can be doing so much to champion women’s sports or the importance of body positivity but instead is pushing a weight loss drug in her retirement.”

Fans went on to call Serena “shameless,” arguing that her promotion of the weight loss drug was “embarrassing for her legacy.” “Pushing Big Pharma weight loss injections while impressionable children watch feels wrong,” one tweet read. “this is so fucking ridiculous and backwards serena williams is a retired tennis legend her body has won her so many awards and titles why the fuck is she promoting glp-1,” said another.

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