July 14, 2025 • 13 mins
For a variety of reasons, there has been an absolute avalanche of ads for weight loss focused GLP-1s. However, a lot of them are not vetted and make a lot of unsubstantiated claims. We shine a light on what's going on.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and what coome of stuff?
I never told you prediction if I hurt with you?
And for today's Monday Mini, we are tackling one tiny
piece of a huge, huge topic. All right, So disclaimer,
(00:28):
this is not an episode about weight loss medication or
in this case, compounded GLP ones. That is a much
bigger episode than a Monday Mini. But today I did
want to talk about the absolute onslaught of ads I
have been getting for them, which is just not great
for my mental health, to be honest with you, could
(00:49):
really not use that my life, that would be best
for me. And also a lot of these ads are
very very targeted towards women. I think in one of
these ads as a woman called herself a fat freak.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh wow, yeah, so I guess.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Content warning that phobim I actually saw that one today,
all right. So briefly, glp ones are drugs primarily used
to treat type two diabetes, but a bunch of other things,
but primarily for that. But in the past few years
they have become a popular quote off brand use as
a weight loss drug, partially led by influencers and celebrities,
(01:29):
and has caused a shortage and an inability to get
these drugs for people who needed it for diabetes. That's
something we'll dig into in our whole episode and is
from what I understand, mostly stabilized, although the pricing has
not stabilized. One in eight adults say they have taken
one as of last year. I believe most new users
(01:51):
an emphasis on new, are white women, and some surveys
have found women in our approaching menopause who are only
not obese. However, young people are a close runner up.
This is for a lot of reasons, but access is
a big one. Diabetes and obesity is more prevalent in
(02:12):
Hispanic and Black communities, so that is also something we're
going to have to tackle in our bigger, her larger episode. Clearly, though,
there was a huge market for these types of drugs
and using them for a weight loss, and new companies
and brands jumped into the pool. And then come the ads,
(02:35):
so so so many ads, and a lot of these
ads contain miss or disinformation, and we did talk about
this briefly in our Cerebral Ads episode, Smantha, but these
ads are misleading in a lot of ways. Several of
these products are not FDA approved, but they portray it
like they are are. They say that they are doctor approved,
(02:55):
which doesn't mean anything legally. By the way, what doctor
sure it does repeper it doesn't mean anything legally. Some
of these products, like gummies our jops, have never been
tested and have absolutely no proof that they work. A
recent study from legit script, which is a company that
works in healthcare product verification, amongst other things, found that
(03:17):
between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four, there was
a twelve hundred percent increase in quote violative are problematic
GLP one ads. This is notably when there was a
shortage of the FDA approved varieties, all these other ones
started showing up. A twenty twenty five survey commissioned by
(03:38):
the National Consumers League, conducted on fifteen hundred women between
eighteen and fifty five years old, found that eighty five
percent of respondents believed the claims in these ads. Over
half believed the term doctor approved meant that it was
endorsed by medical professionals, which of course they did. In general,
(03:59):
people believed that that they were tested and safe and
at pretty high numbers. And to be clear that I
would too like that makes sense, right, if it's telling in.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Say yeah, obviously doctor approved this. That means this FDA approved.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Obviously, Right.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So I don't want to I don't want to sound
like I'm saying they're being foolish or this that if
you see it in an ad, I get it. I
would be like, okay, sure, Yes. In twenty twenty three,
companies that sell these drugs spent one billion dollars in advertising,
which was a fifty one percent increase from the previous year.
(04:35):
So why is this the problem? Apart from the obvious.
Perhaps there isn't information about side effects or adverse effects,
and people are spending money, perhaps a lot of money
to get something that has no proof of working and
could potentially cause a health issue. And on top of that,
(04:56):
they may be delaying getting care that has been tested.
Maybe they have another issue that they really need to
look into. There has been a substantial increase in calls
to poison control due to GLP one overdoses because a
lot of them don't aren't clear and how much you
should take. Wow, there's just a lot of shady stuff
(05:16):
going on in how they present themselves. One set, he
found that about half of online sites selling these drugs
or doing it somewhat illegally or unethically half and it's yeah,
to be clear, they promote other things to weight losses,
like the primary thing they promote, but they also say
stuff like hair loss. They'll help with acne or anxiety
(05:40):
or hormonal imbalance, all of these things that they are
promising that again hasn't been tested.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
But with the GLP one mm oh, I feel like
weight like hair loss. If you're losing nutrients, you're going
to have hair loss.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Well that's what they are promising. Because right now I'm
getting served two ads back to back, really Mochi and Hers,
and there they both promise it.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, here's something I'll yelled at about.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So they did, they did, and I think, yeah, they
are kind of huge backlash. Yes, yeah, they definitely did.
And I think that what I'm talking about is less them.
But they're still in the there's still that.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
They started really stuff during the super Bowl. What is that?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah? Yeah, absolutely absolutely we remember.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I don't think we didn't remember.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Hers. I will never forget. I didn't even see it,
and it's the live of our brain forever.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
But yeah, the timing of all these ads is very
strategic because they're trying to become the favorite products before
the FDA approval roles in.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Or it gets discounted.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But they're trying to do it before whatever happened, so
you're the you're the go to, So they're really pushing that.
I couldn't verify this, but I did find a whole
kind of complaining Reddit thread about these ads because I
was just like, is anybody else inundated with these? And
(07:22):
I've found a whole thread and they were saying that
they were getting coupons for a zimpic and their milk
kit boxes, oh, milk kit boxes, and that they're on
tender And somebody had kind of like the funniest, saddest comment,
which was like, which is very bad for me in general.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
When it comes to day. Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
They're like, yeah, that makes me not one to date,
but thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Okay, cool. But also here's I kind of briefly mentioned
this in a recent episode. I was trying to verify
if it's true. I've ultimately determined even if it's not true,
that at the company behind it still posted it not true,
being is it like an AI post or something, right,
but the company is real and uh posted it and
(08:10):
so it is from Willow Health, and it is from
a woman who is quite thin. It's a picture and
it's a post from her that says, weight loss medication
is self care, period, full stop. I hit my goal
weight after losing ten pounds. My health is better and
I finally love the way I look. Just because I
(08:32):
didn't waste time in the gym doesn't make it invalid.
There's just a lot I could talk about with this.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Oh God, yeah, I know what you're talking about. I've
seen that ad. I've seen that ad in my games
on my phone. I've seen that ad.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Oh and giving it giving it towards menopause people actually
makes a lot of sense because as someone who is
getting older, I feel like I'm struggling more and more
with the weight loss and like trying to figure out
what I'm trying to do healthy. I'm okay with the
way I look, like I've accepted it. I would not
mind if I lost weight. You know, there's some things
(09:15):
that I'm like, Okay, these are the things that I
would love to do, But I'm fine as it is.
I'm not going to the extremes yet. Who knows, Like,
maybe those as will get me and I'll be like,
I hate it all whatever. But that's exactly they know
that this is a target audience, people who have been
told that they should be insecure and they should fix things. Yes,
(09:36):
I mean it's a target.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
No, they were very, very strategic in doing it that way.
And some of the research I read, a lot of
the women who were in menopause were saying, like, I
do all the things and I'm still losing I'm still
gaining weights. So I don't want to demonize people who
take this kind of medication response, but I really this
(10:02):
is about the advertising.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Right, No, it's definitely what is it called. I feel
like when it's like a targeted but it's such a
like because I've seen it too. I've seen it so
my when I've gone to houses and they watch cable TV.
It's either those commercials lawyers, but it's only it's a
(10:26):
lot of medications, including that and about weight loss. But
like it is there constantly on a constant rerun.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yes, and at least the ones that are served to me,
it's almost all women, and I think in one there's
a man that's like, I'm so glad she started taking
it and I was like, oh, like oh, oh my gosh.
So yeah, we are going to have to come back.
And it's such a huge issue. This was about the advertising.
There are a couple of things experts are attempting to
(10:56):
do to curb the bad players in advertising realm around
GLP ones. They're trying to counter misinformation, make the tested
stuff more affordable, require brands to be upfront about ingredients
and dosage levels, and changing the conversation and stigma around
women in wage which I'm all for.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
But good luck, right, especially because we have gone backwards
because of these types of medications. Saying that it's successible,
there's no reason not to.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Be then yeah, that the price tag maybe, but that's
the thing. It's I get it.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I get it if you really really we've been told
we need to be look a certain way, be the
certain weight, and you can't afford the tested one. You
see one that says doctor approved and it's got ads
on TV.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, I get it right.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And there have been like there have been results with ozimbok,
like true Ozimbuk that has been regulated and has been watched.
But this is like a whole different thing, and like
we don't know we don't know a lot of the
side effects, and it's slowly coming about and having this conversation,
and there are people who are getting better because they
were pretty diabetic, like they are like tested. There's needs obviously,
(12:11):
but this conversation about accessibility, this conversation about it being
a franchise as well as money maker for corporations who
are evil. Yes, evil, I said evil. That's the whole thing.
This is unethical. Is what is the truth to this
type of miracle diet?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I say yes, And the truth is there is no
miracle diet. But we will come back to that. I
just had to vent because I was getting.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
All of these.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And we will return. But listeners, if you have any
thoughts about this topic as things we should touch on
when we do get to our big episode about it,
please let us know or any other topics you'd like
to suggest. You can email all us at Hello at
stuffellevertold you dot com. You can find us on a
Blue Sky, a mollsuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok
at Stuff Will Never Told You. We're also on YouTube
(13:07):
and we have a book you can get wherever you
get your books. Thanks a Zoways too. Our super duce
Christina or executive christ Maya, and a contributor Joey. Thank
you and thanks to you for listening stuff Never Told
You books? Should I a Heart Radio? For more podcasts
on my heart Radio, you can check out the heart
radio app, Apple podcast or where you listen to your
favorite shows,
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and what coome of stuff?
I never told you prediction if I hurt with you?
And for today's Monday Mini, we are tackling one tiny
piece of a huge, huge topic. All right, So disclaimer,
(00:28):
this is not an episode about weight loss medication or
in this case, compounded GLP ones. That is a much
bigger episode than a Monday Mini. But today I did
want to talk about the absolute onslaught of ads I
have been getting for them, which is just not great
for my mental health, to be honest with you, could
(00:49):
really not use that my life, that would be best
for me. And also a lot of these ads are
very very targeted towards women. I think in one of
these ads as a woman called herself a fat freak.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh wow, yeah, so I guess.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Content warning that phobim I actually saw that one today,
all right. So briefly, glp ones are drugs primarily used
to treat type two diabetes, but a bunch of other things,
but primarily for that. But in the past few years
they have become a popular quote off brand use as
a weight loss drug, partially led by influencers and celebrities,
(01:29):
and has caused a shortage and an inability to get
these drugs for people who needed it for diabetes. That's
something we'll dig into in our whole episode and is
from what I understand, mostly stabilized, although the pricing has
not stabilized. One in eight adults say they have taken
one as of last year. I believe most new users
(01:51):
an emphasis on new, are white women, and some surveys
have found women in our approaching menopause who are only
not obese. However, young people are a close runner up.
This is for a lot of reasons, but access is
a big one. Diabetes and obesity is more prevalent in
(02:12):
Hispanic and Black communities, so that is also something we're
going to have to tackle in our bigger, her larger episode. Clearly, though,
there was a huge market for these types of drugs
and using them for a weight loss, and new companies
and brands jumped into the pool. And then come the ads,
(02:35):
so so so many ads, and a lot of these
ads contain miss or disinformation, and we did talk about
this briefly in our Cerebral Ads episode, Smantha, but these
ads are misleading in a lot of ways. Several of
these products are not FDA approved, but they portray it
like they are are. They say that they are doctor approved,
(02:55):
which doesn't mean anything legally. By the way, what doctor
sure it does repeper it doesn't mean anything legally. Some
of these products, like gummies our jops, have never been
tested and have absolutely no proof that they work. A
recent study from legit script, which is a company that
works in healthcare product verification, amongst other things, found that
(03:17):
between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four, there was
a twelve hundred percent increase in quote violative are problematic
GLP one ads. This is notably when there was a
shortage of the FDA approved varieties, all these other ones
started showing up. A twenty twenty five survey commissioned by
(03:38):
the National Consumers League, conducted on fifteen hundred women between
eighteen and fifty five years old, found that eighty five
percent of respondents believed the claims in these ads. Over
half believed the term doctor approved meant that it was
endorsed by medical professionals, which of course they did. In general,
(03:59):
people believed that that they were tested and safe and
at pretty high numbers. And to be clear that I
would too like that makes sense, right, if it's telling in.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Say yeah, obviously doctor approved this. That means this FDA approved.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Obviously, Right.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So I don't want to I don't want to sound
like I'm saying they're being foolish or this that if
you see it in an ad, I get it. I
would be like, okay, sure, Yes. In twenty twenty three,
companies that sell these drugs spent one billion dollars in advertising,
which was a fifty one percent increase from the previous year.
(04:35):
So why is this the problem? Apart from the obvious.
Perhaps there isn't information about side effects or adverse effects,
and people are spending money, perhaps a lot of money
to get something that has no proof of working and
could potentially cause a health issue. And on top of that,
(04:56):
they may be delaying getting care that has been tested.
Maybe they have another issue that they really need to
look into. There has been a substantial increase in calls
to poison control due to GLP one overdoses because a
lot of them don't aren't clear and how much you
should take. Wow, there's just a lot of shady stuff
(05:16):
going on in how they present themselves. One set, he
found that about half of online sites selling these drugs
or doing it somewhat illegally or unethically half and it's yeah,
to be clear, they promote other things to weight losses,
like the primary thing they promote, but they also say
stuff like hair loss. They'll help with acne or anxiety
(05:40):
or hormonal imbalance, all of these things that they are
promising that again hasn't been tested.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
But with the GLP one mm oh, I feel like
weight like hair loss. If you're losing nutrients, you're going
to have hair loss.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Well that's what they are promising. Because right now I'm
getting served two ads back to back, really Mochi and Hers,
and there they both promise it.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, here's something I'll yelled at about.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So they did, they did, and I think, yeah, they
are kind of huge backlash. Yes, yeah, they definitely did.
And I think that what I'm talking about is less them.
But they're still in the there's still that.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
They started really stuff during the super Bowl. What is that?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah? Yeah, absolutely absolutely we remember.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I don't think we didn't remember.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Hers. I will never forget. I didn't even see it,
and it's the live of our brain forever.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
But yeah, the timing of all these ads is very
strategic because they're trying to become the favorite products before
the FDA approval roles in.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Or it gets discounted.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But they're trying to do it before whatever happened, so
you're the you're the go to, So they're really pushing that.
I couldn't verify this, but I did find a whole
kind of complaining Reddit thread about these ads because I
was just like, is anybody else inundated with these? And
(07:22):
I've found a whole thread and they were saying that
they were getting coupons for a zimpic and their milk
kit boxes, oh, milk kit boxes, and that they're on
tender And somebody had kind of like the funniest, saddest comment,
which was like, which is very bad for me in general.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
When it comes to day. Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
They're like, yeah, that makes me not one to date,
but thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Okay, cool. But also here's I kind of briefly mentioned
this in a recent episode. I was trying to verify
if it's true. I've ultimately determined even if it's not true,
that at the company behind it still posted it not true,
being is it like an AI post or something, right,
but the company is real and uh posted it and
(08:10):
so it is from Willow Health, and it is from
a woman who is quite thin. It's a picture and
it's a post from her that says, weight loss medication
is self care, period, full stop. I hit my goal
weight after losing ten pounds. My health is better and
I finally love the way I look. Just because I
(08:32):
didn't waste time in the gym doesn't make it invalid.
There's just a lot I could talk about with this.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Oh God, yeah, I know what you're talking about. I've
seen that ad. I've seen that ad in my games
on my phone. I've seen that ad.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Oh and giving it giving it towards menopause people actually
makes a lot of sense because as someone who is
getting older, I feel like I'm struggling more and more
with the weight loss and like trying to figure out
what I'm trying to do healthy. I'm okay with the
way I look, like I've accepted it. I would not
mind if I lost weight. You know, there's some things
(09:15):
that I'm like, Okay, these are the things that I
would love to do, But I'm fine as it is.
I'm not going to the extremes yet. Who knows, Like,
maybe those as will get me and I'll be like,
I hate it all whatever. But that's exactly they know
that this is a target audience, people who have been
told that they should be insecure and they should fix things. Yes,
(09:36):
I mean it's a target.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
No, they were very, very strategic in doing it that way.
And some of the research I read, a lot of
the women who were in menopause were saying, like, I
do all the things and I'm still losing I'm still
gaining weights. So I don't want to demonize people who
take this kind of medication response, but I really this
(10:02):
is about the advertising.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Right, No, it's definitely what is it called. I feel
like when it's like a targeted but it's such a
like because I've seen it too. I've seen it so
my when I've gone to houses and they watch cable TV.
It's either those commercials lawyers, but it's only it's a
(10:26):
lot of medications, including that and about weight loss. But
like it is there constantly on a constant rerun.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yes, and at least the ones that are served to me,
it's almost all women, and I think in one there's
a man that's like, I'm so glad she started taking
it and I was like, oh, like oh, oh my gosh.
So yeah, we are going to have to come back.
And it's such a huge issue. This was about the advertising.
There are a couple of things experts are attempting to
(10:56):
do to curb the bad players in advertising realm around
GLP ones. They're trying to counter misinformation, make the tested
stuff more affordable, require brands to be upfront about ingredients
and dosage levels, and changing the conversation and stigma around
women in wage which I'm all for.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
But good luck, right, especially because we have gone backwards
because of these types of medications. Saying that it's successible,
there's no reason not to.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Be then yeah, that the price tag maybe, but that's
the thing. It's I get it.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I get it if you really really we've been told
we need to be look a certain way, be the
certain weight, and you can't afford the tested one. You
see one that says doctor approved and it's got ads
on TV.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, I get it right.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And there have been like there have been results with ozimbok,
like true Ozimbuk that has been regulated and has been watched.
But this is like a whole different thing, and like
we don't know we don't know a lot of the
side effects, and it's slowly coming about and having this conversation,
and there are people who are getting better because they
were pretty diabetic, like they are like tested. There's needs obviously,
(12:11):
but this conversation about accessibility, this conversation about it being
a franchise as well as money maker for corporations who
are evil. Yes, evil, I said evil. That's the whole thing.
This is unethical. Is what is the truth to this
type of miracle diet?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I say yes, And the truth is there is no
miracle diet. But we will come back to that. I
just had to vent because I was getting.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
All of these.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And we will return. But listeners, if you have any
thoughts about this topic as things we should touch on
when we do get to our big episode about it,
please let us know or any other topics you'd like
to suggest. You can email all us at Hello at
stuffellevertold you dot com. You can find us on a
Blue Sky, a mollsuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok
at Stuff Will Never Told You. We're also on YouTube
(13:07):
and we have a book you can get wherever you
get your books. Thanks a Zoways too. Our super duce
Christina or executive christ Maya, and a contributor Joey. Thank
you and thanks to you for listening stuff Never Told
You books? Should I a Heart Radio? For more podcasts
on my heart Radio, you can check out the heart
radio app, Apple podcast or where you listen to your
favorite shows,
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