Serena Williams receives heavy backlash after Super Bowl ad promoting weight-loss drug

Serena Williams, undoubtedly one of the best tennis players in history and best female athletes of all-time, winner of 23 singles Grand Slam titles, has faced harsh criticism for a Super Bowl where she promotes a weight loss medication.

In the commercial, Williams injects herself a medication using GLP-1, a hormone used in weight loss medications, that stimulates insulin release and slows digestion, reducing appetite. She says that with the medication she has lost more than 13.5 kilograms/30 pounds in a year, helping her with blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

While it was known that Serena has taken this medication before, to help her reduce weight after giving birth to her second daughter Adira River in 2023, seeing her promote a drug to lose weight has come out as quite a shock for fans, who have been very critical on social media about the ethical implications of promoting products who continue to promote thin bodies, especially coming from a sports person who never had overweight, and now look extremely thin.

GLP-1 medicaments are also prone to secondary effects, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and constipation. Many point out that, especially coming from an athlete, Williams should be advocating for a healthy diet and exercise instead of drugs to lose weight quickly. What do you think?