It is a peculiar challenge, selling the idea that people should move around more, when your company's primary business is selling them medicine for when they do not.
Eli Lilly, the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant, launched a campaign over the weekend that attempts this particular needle-threading, enlisting Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever guard who has become perhaps the most watched player in women's basketball, to suggest that physical activity need not be the exclusive province of people who are, well, Caitlin Clark.
The effort, called Start How You Can, debuted Saturday at the Fever's season opener, which is either a coincidence of scheduling or the sort of thing that happens when a company has existing relationships with both a team and its star player (Lilly has had both since Ms. Clark entered the league in 2024).
"This campaign is in no way a way for us to sell medicine," said Lina Polimeni, Lilly's senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "It's about what the company stands for, and what we stand for is health."
(One imagines the medicine largely sells itself, particularly in the current environment.)
Ms. Polimeni said the company intentionally avoided using Ms. Clark as what she described as a "billboard," opting instead for a quieter execution that intersperses shots of the basketball star with footage of everyday people doing everyday things. The creative, she said, was meant to feel "grounded" rather than built around arena energy and highlight reels.
"Everybody's day one looks different," Ms. Clark said in a statement. "I think a lot of people wait until they feel ready, but that's usually what holds you back."
Ms. Polimeni positioned the work as part of Lilly's continued investment in women's sports, noting that the company intends to maintain a sustained presence rather than appearing only at tentpole moments.
"This is going to be a sustained showing of bringing this message in big moments of culture and big moments of sports," she said.
It is, at minimum, a more modest ask than most pharmaceutical marketing: before you need our products, perhaps try walking.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "As WNBA season tips off, Lilly taps Caitlin Clark to make everyday movement feel more accessible | Campaign US"