While it remains to be seen if pop superstar Taylor Swift will attend Super Bowl LVIII, we know Astellas Pharma will be there.
The Japanese drugmaker announced Thursday morning that it will run a 60-second ad promoting its menopause drug Veozah (fezolinetant) during the broadcast of the big game on February 11.
Astellas said it will air a new cut of the Fewer Hot Flashes, More Not Flashes TV spot it debuted in October. The updated commercial will air after the coin toss and before the kickoff.
This marks Astellas’ second consecutive year advertising during the Super Bowl.
Last year, the company aired its What’s VMS? ad to raise awareness about vasomotor symptoms, which is the medical definition for hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause.
In the 30-second commercial, actress Carmella Riley asked women on the street about VMS and their experiences with menopause before encouraging them to visit the campaign website.
This year, Astellas is promoting Veozah, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat moderate to severe VMS due to menopause in May 2023 following three Phase 3 trials indicating its efficacy and safety.
Five months later, it rolled out Fewer Hot Flashes, More Not Flashes as part of a national TV campaign to promote the drug. In a way, it makes sense that the campaign is airing a commercial during the Super Bowl given that Astellas has been football-focused in its advertising around Veozah.
The company spent $24.1 million advertising Veozah during the 2023 NFL season, according to data from iSpot.tv, more money than any advertisers that did not appear during the 2022 NFL season.
Jill Jaroch, senior director of women’s health and urology marketing at Astellas, said the company is “super excited” to be returning to the Super Bowl and communicating about menopause to an audience projected to be in the tens of millions.
“We see the Super Bowl as an enormous opportunity to reach a massive audience; half of which is women and a good chunk of them are in midlife,” she said. “Our goal has always been to help women feel heard and their unique needs validated.”
Jaroch said the drugmaker will be measuring the commercial’s success based on traditional metrics like website visits and consumer engagement. However, she added that Astellas is looking to empower women to talk openly about their menopause experiences and provide them with a potential treatment option for addressing their moderate to severe VMS symptoms.
She noted that in addition to their own promotional work around Veozah, there has been an increase in awareness campaigns and advertising around menopause, which is fostering a larger conversation around a once taboo subject in women’s health.
Astellas is also expected to be one the few healthcare brands advertising during the big game, which provides the company with the chance to have its message break through commercials focused on consumer goods and products.
“This ad is a continuation of our commitments to the [menopause] conversation and, obviously, the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl of advertising. So to be on that stage with the statements that we’re making is something that we’re all proud of,” she said.
