Serena Williams has touted her dramatic weight loss in a new Super Bowl advert for GLP-1 medication.
The tennis legend sparked backlash last summer when she revealed that she had shed a staggering 31 pounds by using weight loss drug Zepbound, a GLP-1 medication.
Her revelation came amid her partnership with Ro, a telehealth company that focuses on weight management.
And now the 23-time Grand Slam champion has taken her promotion of the weight loss drug to the next level – Super Bowl level, to be precise.
Williams stars in a spot for Ro, flaunting the effects of her weight journey, which will air during the breaks in the NFL’s big game on February 8.
In the commercial, which was teased on Wednesday, she claimed she was ‘moving’ and ‘feeling’ better on Ro and revealed she had lost an additional three pounds from last August.
Serena Williams stars in a new Super Bowl advert promoting GLP-1 medication
The 44-year-old revealed the secret behind her dramatic weight loss last summer
Throughout the advert, Williams could be seen dancing in a powder blue tennis skirt and crop top set, while her voiceover reiterated claims that she is healthier thanks to the medication.
The Super Bowl ad is meant to launch a larger campaign demonstrating that people can be ‘healthier on Ro.’
In addition to Williams, NBA legend Charles Barkley, who lost 45 pounds, will also appear in the spot, according to Vogue.
Last year, 30-second spots during the Philadelphia Eagles’ showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs cost an eye-watering $8 million on average, according to CBS.
It isn’t the first time that Williams has appeared in an advert during the big game, with the mother-of-two previously helping Anheuser-Busch’s Michelob Ultra and Remy Martin sell their products.
She even turned heads by joining Kendrick Lamar onstage during last year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
However, this year’s particular campaign will undoubtedly raise eyebrows as Williams’ previous Ro revelation was met with immense controversy.
Fans expressed their disappointment in the tennis icon for using the drug, claiming that it was letting down the body positivity movement, when she went public with her use of the GLP-1 medication last August.
In the commercial, the 23-time Grand Slam winner can be seen dancing around
Williams brought the curtain down on her glittering on-court career at the 2022 US Open
The tennis icon has said that she has lost 34 pounds using the weight loss medication
‘So now Serena Williams is publicly promoting GLP-1 from Ro, an Ozempic-like product, and claiming her use of it for weight loss, as a healthy choice,’ one fan shared.
‘I’m deeply disappointed on her, as an ex-athlete that has been into body positivity and healthy lifestyle besides appearance.’
Another said:’GLP1 is a drug, and there are still doubts about the safety of this drug. Please don’t promote something so sinister for money. Many people might be influenced by you to use this drug, and they might suffer harm!’
‘Serena Williams promoting ozempic/GLP-1 is problematic and disappointing because it’s being marketed as a ‘health’ choice rather than an aesthetic one,’ one fan wrote on social media, while getting the exact brand Williams used incorrect. ‘She didn’t look like this at her peak as an athlete so really she’s losing weight to achieve a certain look nothing else.’
Williams previously showed off her new physique in a series of post-workout photos, and opened up to TODAY and People that the medication had left her feeling light ‘physically and mentally.’
The tennis icon, who stepped away from the sport after the 2022 US Open, said that she began to struggle with her weight after becoming a mother for the first time with the birth of her eldest daughter, Alexis Olympia, in 2017.
Williams welcomed Adira in 2023, five years after giving birth to her eldest daughter Olympia
Williams is pictured with her husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, at the 2024 ESPYS
She dealt with similar postpartum struggles over the changes to her body following the birth of her second daughter Adira River in August 2023.
Williams explained that she would go through quick bursts of weight loss only for her weight to then remain stagnant regardless of the healthy lifestyle she was accustomed to maintaining as a professional athlete.
That’s when she approached health care company Ro, for which she is a paid spokesperson and her husband is an investor in, for guidance on GLP-1 medication.
