00:01Alright, but like we said, not just Indian celebrities, there is a particular international
00:07celebrity who got into a lot of chaos for having endorsed these drugs.
00:14I think you know who I'm talking about.
00:15This is the icon of tennis, an inspiration to lakhs and lakhs of women, a role model,
00:20Serena Williams.
00:21She finds herself on the wrong end of the spectrum.
00:26If Aishwarya perhaps did everything right, she is being questioned for all her moves.
00:31The tennis great is now facing backlash following her appearance in the Super Bowl commercial
00:36promoting weight loss treatments offered by telehealth company, Roe.
00:41Why?
00:42I'll tell you that in a minute.
00:43The controversy began last year when 23 times Grand Slam champions spoke publicly about her
00:48post-pregnancy weight loss journey.
00:50And it's hard.
00:51Anybody who's given birth will tell you that.
00:53After retiring from tennis and giving birth to her second child, Serena said she struggled
00:58to shed weight despite diet and exercise and eventually used a GLP-1 medication.
01:03A class of drugs, like you said, includes treatments such as Vigovie and other anti-obesity injections.
01:09The same year, Serena partnered with Roe, a US-based telehealth platform that prescribes
01:15GLP-1 weight loss medications.
01:16Her husband, Alex Sohanyan, also serves as a board member of that company.
01:25That connection intensified the debate.
01:28It intensified during the Super Bowl 60 when Serena is in a national television advertisement
01:34as part of Roe's Healthier on Roe campaign.
01:37In the ad, she described losing more than 30 pounds and said that the treatment helped
01:41her feel healthier, more energetic.
01:43And following the broadcast, criticism surfaced across social media and in medical circles.
01:48Some critics also argued that featuring a global sports icon in a pharmaceutical weight loss
01:52advertisement could blur the line between medical necessity and lifestyle marketing.
01:57Others said that the ad risks oversimplifying complex prescription treatments that require
02:04clinical oversight.
02:05The episode, again, highlights broader ongoing debate about these GLP-1 weight loss drugs,
02:12their rising popularity, high demand and the ethical questions surrounding celebrity promotion
02:18of prescription medication.
02:21But like we said, don't listen to Serena, don't listen to Aishwarya, don't even listen
02:25to us, listen to your doctor, they know best.
02:30And please, please do not self-prescribe these very, very powerful drugs.
02:35Our appeal today after this entire broadcast actually goes out to the government of India.
02:40We are now appealing for them to put out the right guardrails because without that, an entire
02:46generation of people and a society, though facing obesity will fall into another trap.
02:52Now the onus is on the government to ensure that these drugs fall in the right hands.
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