Eli Lilly’s Zepbound push is getting a “Queer Eye” makeover with the help of fashion expert Tan France, who is joining the drugmaker to knit together a collection of stories that uses clothing to unthread the societal bias around obesity.
After 10 seasons of starring as the resident fashion guru on the Netflix makeover show, France is well aware that powerful stories can be told by the clothes people wear. For those living with obesity, however, clothing can double as a crutch to “hide from bias and judgment" and is often intertwined with a complicated history of navigating the stigma that the disease carries, he explained in a Lilly press release this week.
Lilly’s “Changing the Thread Collection,” a multimedia campaign for its obesity injection Zepbound, aims to reframe the narrative by using clothing as a vehicle for “sharing the science, the struggles and the accomplishments along an obesity journey” and promoting a cultural reset to treat obesity as a chronic disease that’s deserving of treatment, the company said.
Clothing is quite literally a canvas in the campaign, which sees stories from people living with obesity embroidered into clothing garments. The pieces will be put on display at an upcoming immersive experience hosted by Lilly in New York City in the hopes of “inspiring audiences to reframe obesity as a disease and celebrate resilience,” according to the company.
The campaign website features a collection of videos in which people with obesity tell their “untold stories” tied to a specific piece of clothing—like Antequa’s one-piece swimsuit, Samantha’s gray jacket and Kevin’s scrubs, to name a few. Each video emphasizes that obesity “is a real disease,” as one speaker, Hannah, put it, adding, “Sometimes your body just needs help.”
Along with offering resources and support, the website invites those on a personal weight journey or looking to support others facing weight stigma to take a five-question quiz and determine “What Kind of Threadsetter Are You?” Each result offers a way for different “Threadsetters” to counter the narrative that obesity is a choice—“The Challenger” can “call out a myth when you hear it,” for example, while the “Quiet Force” can “offer a compliment that makes someone feel truly seen.”
France, who does not take Zepbound, said he was drawn to the campaign as he’s seen “people I love face weight stigma” and is “committed to changing the narrative.”
“Everyone deserves to express themselves through clothing, without fear of judgment. And while treatments like Zepbound, along with diet and exercise, may help to lose weight and keep the weight off, the stigma of obesity often stands in the way,” he said. “I hope this campaign gives people with obesity a voice and encourages others to listen, look closer and help retell the story of obesity with openness and understanding.”
Lilly’s enlisted its first Zepbound celebrity spokesperson this summer with Emmy-nominated actress Kym Whitley, who shared her experience of turning to the drug after years of struggling with obesity. Whitley, too, encourages open dialogues about obesity as a disease to help reduce the stigma around it, she said in the campaign.
Zepbound will soon be available at major discounts for self-pay patients through Lilly’s direct-to-consumer channel and for $50 per month on Medicare after the company struck a deal with the White House earlier this month, matching the government’s ambitions to sell medicines at prices similar to those in other countries.
Obesity drugs from Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk were praised by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who claimed at a Nov. 6 press conference that Americans will “lose 125 million pounds by this time next year” because of the agreements the government inked with the two companies.