A weekend focused on women’s health and women’s basketball, all in Eli Lilly’s home state of Indiana? Consider that a layup for Lilly.
In honor of the upcoming WNBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis, hometown pharma Lilly is celebrating the occasion with a number of hands-on initiatives that underscore the importance of early breast cancer detection. This weekend’s events will build on the company’s “99” campaign, which highlights the American Cancer Society’s estimate that when localized breast cancer is detected early, the five-year relative survival rate is 99%.
The “99” campaign made a splash during the weekend of the women’s NCAA March Madness Final Four and Championship games in April, when Lilly headed down to Tampa, Florida, to sponsor the first-ever Women’s College All-Star Combine and the Women’s College All-Star Game. All of the players in the combine wore jerseys featuring the number 99 to represent the statistic, and free mammograms were offered on site throughout the weekend.
Now, the company is using its home court advantage to run it back.
The WNBA All-Star Game will take place July 19 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse arena, home of the Indiana Fever women’s basketball team, with Fever guard Caitlin Clark and the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier playing as team captains. Lilly joined the “Fever family” last year, adding a company logo patch on the team’s jerseys and signing on to serve as the Fever’s health equity partner.
“Bringing the ‘99’ campaign to the WNBA All-Star Weekend—an event that celebrates the power and talent of women—gives us a unique opportunity to reach people nationally with a message highlighting what truly matters: our health,” Lina Polimeni, Lilly’s chief corporate brand officer, told Fierce Pharma Marketing in an emailed statement.
Aware of how “scary and life-changing” a breast cancer diagnosis can be, Polimeni went on to note that early screenings such as mammograms are “one of the most effective ways” to find breast cancer before symptoms begin.
Given this, Lilly is once again teaming up with health information organization Black Health Matters to offer free mammograms at a mobile screening unit for the duration of the WNBA All-Star weekend.
Meanwhile, over at Indiana University’s medical school, the company is partnering with the university in a collaboration with the Susan G. Komen breast cancer-focused foundation to support breast tissue donation efforts at the school’s comprehensive cancer center.
“We're also partnering with well-known athletes and personalities who have a personal connection to breast cancer and are joining us in reminding women of the importance of early detection,” Polimeni added.
Those names include the likes of broadcasters Hannah Storm and Andraya Carter, plus University of Southern California shooting guard JuJu Watkins, who was just named 2024-2025’s Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year. Lilly previously worked with these and other well-known basketball personalities during its March Madness events.
Of course, Lilly’s “Hands” short film will also air at the All-Star Game this Saturday. The 60-second commercial, which debuted during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in February, follows a woman—and her hands—as her day-to-day activities are interrupted by a suspicious lump identified during a breast self-exam.
“The most powerful way to fight cancer is in your hands. Most cancers are curable when caught early,” text on the screen reads at the end of the ad.
Lilly opted to unveil “Hands” during the Grammys as a way to get out the message to “as many people as possible” by syncing up its awareness campaign with “key cultural conversations,” Polimeni said in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing at the time.