The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2021
Eli Lilly introduces itself as 'A Medicine Company' with an honest look at US healthcare
W+K's film for Lilly's first corporate campaign traded product claims for a reality check: America is not the healthiest nation — but can be.
Eli Lilly and Company
What it had to solve
At a moment when people were losing faith in health institutions, Eli Lilly — nearly 150 years after Colonel Eli Lilly founded it — was still known mainly for individual medicines rather than for what the company stood for. It wanted its first corporate campaign to say what should matter most to a maker of medicine.
How it works
After the pandemic shook public faith in health institutions, Eli Lilly — nearly 150 years after Colonel Eli Lilly founded it — realised people knew its medicines but not what the company itself believed. As the Tokyo Olympics approached, it decided to introduce the company behind the molecules.
The result, created by Wieden+Kennedy Portland, was 'A Medicine Company': a film that took an honest look at how health is treated in the US. Unlike traditional pharma advertising, it confronted health inequalities directly and made clear that everyone deserves good health — health first, products second.
The introductory spot launched at the end of May 2021, and a second film, 'Health Above All', ran during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, pairing athletes with viewers in pawn shops, barber shops and small bedrooms and admitting that America is not the healthiest country in the world — 'but we can be.' The integrated campaign ran across TV, print, social, digital and out-of-home in New York and Los Angeles.
Why it lands
- Honesty was the differentiator in a category full of perfect-picture product ads; admitting the US is not the healthiest nation made the brand believable.
- Introducing the company rather than a medicine built trust that no single product claim could carry.
- Tying the reality check to the Olympics — the moment America looked healthiest — made the message land with maximum contrast.
- The signoff 'Lilly. A Medicine Company' turned one film into a repeatable platform for every corporate campaign that followed.
What it did
The campaign gave Lilly its first corporate platform, running as TV, print, social, digital and out-of-home work in New York and Los Angeles around the Tokyo Games, and put the company inside the health-equity conversation. The closing signoff 'Lilly. A Medicine Company' became the de facto end card of Lilly's ongoing corporate brand work, and the film sits in the D&AD and One Show archives.
What you can take
When a category sells hope, sell honesty: admitting US healthcare falls short earned a pharma company more trust than product promises, and made 'health above all' the brand.
Since then
The campaign became Lilly's corporate brand foundation: later Wieden+Kennedy work for the company still closed on 'Lilly. A Medicine Company', and executives framed subsequent efforts on cancer screening and obesity awareness as continuations of the same health-equity conversation. D&AD's awards archive keeps the introductory film as its own entry, as does the One Show's 2022 winners archive.
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