A screenshot of Hims & Hers’ Super Bowl commercial (Sherwood News)

Hims & Hers threw a Super Bowl Hail Mary that landed incomplete. Now the receiver is on the sidelines.

Hims & Hers did get increased attention from the ad, but the product it showcased for millions of people is no longer at the center of its business model.

J. Edward Moreno

3/12/25 2:12PM

Hims & Hers’ Super Bowl ad attracted controversy, but it also led to a spike in web searches and drove a bump in traffic to the tele-pharmacy’s site.

The commercial focused on weight-loss drugs, though less than two weeks after it was shown to millions of people, the Food and Drug Administration took semaglutide off its shortage list, meaning Hims & Hers can no longer sell copies of Ozempic or Wegovy. The company now has to rethink its strategy on weight-loss drugs.

The ad also ruffled Big Pharma’s feathers, with Novo Nordisk (which makes Ozempic and Wegovy) buying full-page ads in The New York Times and USA Today the Monday after the Super Bowl, questioning the safety of compounded drugs. As Hims & Hers figures out how to move forward, one wrong move could potentially trigger a lawsuit from the Danish pharmaceutical giant.

A Super Bowl ad reportedly cost $8 million per 30-second slot, and Hims & Hers’ ad was one minute long, suggesting it likely cost them about $16 million before production and agency costs.

The company did not immediately respond to a request to comment, including an inquiry about much the ad cost it. Hims & Hers typically spends about half its revenue on marketing, with nearly $679 million spent on marketing last year.

Google searches of “Hims & Hers” spiked on the day of the Super Bowl, according to Google Trends data. But that didn’t necessarily translate to sustained traffic to the company’s website.

Data from Similarweb shows that web traffic to hims.com and forhers.com spiked the day of the Super Bowl, but on a month-over-month basis was less in February than in January, which is typical. (The domain forhims.com also redirects to hims.com, though its traffic is much lower.)

David Crowther, Claire Yubin Oh

TAKING PITCHES

11/3/25

Warren Buffett’s big cash pile just hit $382 billion — what could Berkshire buy?

Berkshire Hathaway is throwing off more money than ever before — but Buffett and co. are staying patient.

CEO Warren Buffett Attending Baseball Game

3d sketch poster trend collage image of healthy salad leaves nutrition rotten iceberg mouth smile lips food diet hand hold fork

The slop bowl recession just sent Chipotle’s stock cratering

Chipotle dropped 18% yesterday, and its woes weighed on the wider slop bowl complex, dragging Cava and Sweetgreen down, too.

Claire Yubin Oh10/31/25

J. Edward Moreno

10/30/25

Most health insurers beat estimates in Q3, but investors have mixed feelings

While generally in line with expectations, medical costs still haven’t come down.

Millie Giles10/30/25

eBay stock slumps on gloomy Q4 outlook despite solid Q3 earnings

Shares of eBay fell as much as 10.5% in premarket trading on Thursday morning after the company gave a lower-than-expected profit forecast for the important holiday shopping season.

The e-commerce giant reported solid numbers for the third quarter on Wednesday, with revenue up 9% as reported to $2.8 billion and gross merchandise volume rising 10% to $20.1 billion, topping the average analyst forecast of $19.4 billion, per Bloomberg.

However, concerns about the future somewhat overshadowed these results.

eBay outlined its profit outlook for the period ending in December to $1.31 to $1.36 a share, with revenue at $2.83 billion to $2.89 billion. According to Bloomberg-compiled data, this broadly matches Wall Street’s estimates for the top line, but misses on the bottom line, with analysts forecasting EPS to come in at $1.39 — suggesting the company expects some further margin pressure.

The company has been facing macroeconomic challenges since the US ended the de minimis tariff exemption in late August, with the online marketplace reliant on shipments. One small silver lining? CFO Peggy Alford highlighted a “less durable trend” on a post-earnings call: that as commodity prices for precious metals boomed, demand for bullion and collectible coins on eBay spiked.