Online Finasteride vendor Hims recently announced a partnership with music, TV and movie star Jennifer Lopez and her MLB star fiance Alex Rodriguez. The announcement video is here:
This is quite significant in that it is the first time (to my knowledge) that a majorly famous celebrity has become the face of a company whose bread and butter is in hair loss treatments, principally Finasteride and Minoxidil. JLo herself claims she has been using Minoxidil for years in this video. Whilst Finasteride is absent from the promo, the camera pans over a thickening shampoo âpowered by Saw Palmettoâ
Whatâs contained in the video will be unremarkable to unversed members of the public but given what we know about the destructive potential of antiandrogenic substances it is of course highly troubling. Dig deeper into their social media savvy marketing and you see them aggressively pushing antiandrogens across Twitter and Instagram
Sertraline
The company could at least argue that they are advertising Finasteride in line with what it is FDA approved for. The same cannot be said for their deeply disturbing marketing of the powerful SSRI anti depressant medication Sertraline, playfully advertised here as a casual treatment for premature ejaculation
The antidepressant is being sold in shiny, condom shaped packaging and is depicted in their âPremature Ejaculation Kitâ advert with the woman holding the drug packet while the couple are under the sheets, presumably in a prelude to sex
Theyâre being referred to by Hims as âpremature ejaculation pillsâ. This rebranding of a serious psychiatric medication into a take-when-you-need-it sex aid is made all the more odious by the company admitting on their own website that âRight now, there arenât any medications specifically designed to treat premature ejaculationâ
Sold in a recurring subscription model of 5 tablets per month, the product page advises âtake a single dosage as needed 4-8 hours before having sexâ
This is in direct contradiction to their own info page on SSRI use for premature ejaculation, which reports that studies show daily use of the drug for several consecutive weeks showed efficacy for treatment of premature ejaculation.
The very study that Hims link to as proof of Sertralineâs orgasm delaying potential outright states that Sertraline isnât suitable to use on an âas-needed basisâ
Single dosage use of Sertraline indicated on an âas neededâ basis has absolutely no support in existing medical literature, neither for efficacy nor safety testing. Indeed, the âImportant Safety Informationâ section on the Hims website states
Do not stop SERTRALINE without first talking to your healthcare provider. Stopping SERTRALINE may cause serious symptoms, including anxiety, irritability, high or low mood, feeling restless or sleepy; headache, sweating, nausea, dizziness; electric shock-like sensations, shaking, and confusion.
How a customer is supposed to not stop taking Sertraline when only 5 pills per month are prescribed is anyoneâs guess. It is commonly accepted that SSRI medications are supposed to be used on a daily basis with a consistent dosing schedule and a primary clinician monitoring the patient.
Advertising
The company are using Millennial-centric marketing (memes, internet vernacular phrasing and emojis) in their social media advertising. The Jennifer Lopez partnership announcement appears next to one of the Sertraline ads on their Instagram feed
âWell I love his sense of humor, but what I really love is that he knows how to Fuck.â
Playing on the notion of âSure, women say they love a man for his sense of humour, but reallyâŚâ Hims target sexual performance anxieties to sell antidepressants and Viagra to young men in their cynical video ads.
They even have a video where seven of their employees sit and body shame Lebron James over his androgenetic alopecia, imploring him to get on Finasteride and Minoxidil to âfix that hairline as quickly as possibleâ
On Instagram, a bizarre and gratuitously misleading video depicts a gloved hand directing a stream of Finasteride into a completely bald manâs mouth, his scalp regrowing a full mane. Finasteride chiefly functions to retain existing hair; it cannot restore hair completely in the manner depicted in the advertisment.
Controversy
The promotion of Sertraline as a PE remedy and beta blockers sold as a spot fix for everyday anxiety has already generated some controversy. The New York Times reported on sites like Hims as ârestaurant menu medicineâ writing
âThese companies operate in a regulatory vacuum that could increase public health risks, according to interviews with physicians, former federal health regulators and legal experts. And federal and state health laws, written to ensure competent medical care and drug safety, have not kept pace with online services, they say.â
Bloomberg stated that Hims were
âtesting the boundaries of medical marketing, advertising prescription drugs for unapproved uses to college studentsâ
Discussed on their news channel, one of Bloombergâs presenters commented on what she described as the âgrossnessâ of Himsâ âdisease mongeringâ marketing
A Guardian opinion piece described Himsâ marketing of Sertraline to help âlengthen you and your partnerâs sexy timeâ as ânauseatingâ and ââAnxiety economyâ at its worstâ
Propranolol Ad Scandal
Himsâ sister company Hers received substantial backlash against an advert they ran which proffered heart rate medication Propranolol as a solution to the nerves women might feel before a âbig dateâ.
Reported on here https://fashionista.com/2019/03/digital-health-wellness-companies-government-regulations
The too-casual, somewhat reductive, highly-stylized journey from ad to cart caught the attention of influencer Yana Shept of @gelcream, who broadcasted screenshots â along with her candid distaste â to her 109k Instagram followers. The story was then picked up by @esteelaundry, an anonymous online collective known for calling out sketchy behavior in the beauty industry; and the rest, as they say, is history. The kind of history that lives on ad infinitum in Story Highlights.
âI saw it on Facebook and it immediately made me upset,â Shept, who has suffered from anxiety herself, tells Fashionista. âI was shocked by both the language and the ecstatic face of a model taking the pill. This is not a sweet pill; this is not the right way to market drugs.â She points to the fact that Propranolol is actually a beta-blocker intended to treat high blood pressure, its only FDA-approved use. However, some doctors, like the partners employed by Hers, prescribe it for off-label treatment of anxiety.
Sheptâs audience was similarly alarmed â her Stories post elicited a response from nearly 10,000 people. âThere is a huge difference between clinical anxiety and nerves,â one messaged. âAs someone who takes propranolol for anxiety, I canât believe this is a thing. Feeling nervous about a date is completely normal. I feel like this completely invalidates the fact I have been prescribed this medication for generalized anxiety,â said another.
It was reported on in various other outlets. Hims showed that theyâre a company that will retract and apologise if enough of a stink is caused
Several semi-high follower Twitter accounts tweeted about Hims skirting around the edges of telemedicinal ethics
Hims CEO Andrew Dudum uploaded a video of him laughing at rapper Snoop Dogg telling the viewer to purchase Himsâ products so âya dick can workâ, a snort of almost cartoonish villainy given the sexual dysfunction that Finasteride and Sertraline can cause
The company has seen explosive and accelerated success in the short time since it launched
Never before has the market seen Finasteride, Saw Palmetto, Minoxidil and Sertraline marketed in such a way. The JLo partnership alone has already super charged Himsâ brand awareness (Hims and Hers combined Instagram followers: 125,000; JLo Instagram followers: 109 million. Hims and Hers combined Twitter followers: 3,500; JLo Twitter followers: 44 million).
An MD on Twitter recently remarked on Himsâ marketing nous and the âtons of usersâ that it attracts
Given their Millennial focused, restraint-free marketing of Finasteride, Saw Palmetto and Minoxidil and their attempt to reinvent an SSRI as a sexual performance drug, the company will almost certainly be responsible for a substantial increase in young men with what is currently termed PFS.
