By Megan Graham
Drugmaker Novo Nordisk is running ads that play off Apple's humorous early-aughts "Get a Mac" campaign to try to distinguish Ozempic from other GLP-1 drugs taken for Type 2 diabetes.
The new ads reunite Justin Long, who embodied a hip Mac laptop in Apple's commercials, with John Hodgman, who played a hapless PC. Long now stars as Ozempic, which he says has Food and Drug Administration approval for more indications than other GLP-1s when taken for Type 2 diabetes. Hodgman represents the other GLP-1s.
The campaign comes as Novo Nordisk's early grip on the market for GLP-1s has slipped following production challenges and mounting competition.
"2025 was a difficult year," Chief Executive Maziar Mike Doustdar said at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference last week. "I will not belittle that one bit. But I will say, it's the curse of a leader."
As patents begin to expire for semaglutide, the key ingredient in Ozempic and sibling weight-loss treatment Wegovy, Novo Nordisk said it is focused on expanding the market overall, he said.
"Because in a number of markets we have lost exclusivity this year, we will get competition. And when you have a very high market share, competition will take some of that share away, we need to focus on the market expansion," Doustdar said.
The company hopes efforts like its just-released pill form of Wegovy will help.
The new ads, themed "There's Only One Ozempic," feature Long making clear that Ozempic is FDA-approved to lower the worsening risk of chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular events, unlike its drug counterparts in the space.
"Ozempic has become the category name for GLP-1s," said Ed Cinca, senior vice president of marketing and patient solutions at Novo Nordisk. "We see it day in and day out, and that's really pretty awesome as a marketer. The challenge with it, though, is that for better or worse, all of the GLP-1s are being ascribed the things that Ozempic has earned."
The campaign uses a more irreverent tone than most pharmaceutical ads to catch consumers' attention, Cinca said.
After it begins running on social media and connected TVs this week, Cinca said Novo Nordisk will track social media to gauge its effectiveness at setting Ozempic apart from other GLP-1s.
Hodgman and Long said that though they have worked together on other projects after "Get a Mac," this is the first ad they have done together since.
"The reality is that pharmaceutical ads have become kind of themselves, generic, right?" Hodgman said. "There's lots of people dancing in slow motion in fields or driving convertibles down the Pacific Coast Highway or whatever. You don't know what they're saying. You don't even know what they're advertising, and they're certainly not helping you understand what the conversation is around the product."
Long in some ads reads a list of potential side effects and safety information for more than two minutes while Hodgman looks on silently, at times while enjoying a bowl of popcorn.
"I had not heard most of those words," Long said.
Megan Graham writes for WSJ Leadership Institute's CMO Today. Reach her at megan.graham@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2026 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments