It’s almost 10pm on Saturday night (31st January). There’s an absolute deluge of rain hitting the conservatory roof, and I can’t get myself to bed… for some reason. Not entirely unrelated to the bad sleep, I did decide to partake in Dry January this year. I thought abstinence would at least help with the sleeping. Alas. I guess I’ll be dropping a sleeping tablet tonight then. So, while I am up, I just thought I’d start typing to get some energy out of this busy brain. I’ve got a Whatnot auction show on in the background. The host is selling Popmart beans…seriously, what is this overstimulation? This capitalism? I’m a sucker for trinkets and tat. What can I say!?

A wild Saturday night on the Peroni Zero. Welcome to my party.

How have you been?

Has it been a very January, January for you?

Did you go dry, damp, or vegan? And, are you feeling the health benefits?

As for me, I wasn’t feeling any immediate health benefits of a booze free few weeks, so this piece from LADbible caught my eye and gave me a little extra push over the mid-month hump to not reach for the wine. 

The decrease in cancer risk alone is enough to rethink drinking habits, right!!? 

I’m sure you’re not here for me getting on my high horse about not drinking. Anyone who knows me in the flesh is probably laughing to themselves right now. 🤣

But with a clearer mind and all that from not drinking, mine has been wandering (remember last time I mentioned reflection), well, ambition popped up too. And I’ve been pondering the meaning of ambition more than I intended. Where does it really show up and matter… personal, professional, or somewhere in between?

Is ambition fixed, or can it shift over time? 

Do we define it ourselves, or live with a by-the-book definition?

Is it about big, whimsy dreams, or can it happen in steps? 

Is it a driver of talent, or is it driven by it?

How much does perception of ambition carry bias?

And… can you actually pour yourself a cup of it? 🥲

I’m gonna take some time to get this out of my head, get some words down. Just as an outlet. But before I start, I’m curious to hear what you all think. When I say “ambition,” what does that mean for you? Let me know if this could be a useful bit of thinking. And maybe I'll get it published. At the very least, it’ll end up as a LinkedIn article. Maybe.

Right, I’m waffling. Want some POPhealth? I’m sure you do. Let’s dive in!!

Kicking off light and massively in my wheelhouse… this little number on Instagram gave me a chuckle.

Drug or Pokémon - would you have got it right?

For transparency, it’s worth noting that the poster does not credit the original creator, who made this game for his colleagues for Pharmacy Week. So this wasn’t an exam question. I wouldn’t do you dirty like that. I just love an excuse to make Pokémon relevant 🙂

Sticking with Instagram, I cannot even count the number of times I saw people inside and outside the health industry post about this little number from the NHS for cervical screening:

Honestly, it blows my mind how many people’s minds were blown by this one. Mind blown inception.

“OMG the NHS is capable of being relevant!”

I get it. It's a great bit of reactive content. It’s got perfect context for the audience it’s trying to reach. A great example of borrowing from culture, rather than trying to jump on the bandwagon. And it’s also earned a nice bit of PR coverage, which lets face it, the NHS will take because it’s bloody difficult getting a message like cervical screening out there that sticks and encourages action!

I’m hoping we take this little peak noted in Google Trends as a sign of action… or, at least intent?

Clearly, the man himself had no part in this. And I’m sure this is the sort of thing he wouldn’t want to complain about, either. So, for now I am living for that “not sorry, we’ll do what we want because we’re saving lives right now” attitude coming from the NHS with this one. But looking at all the surrounding posts on there, there isn’t a hint of that attitude elsewhere. I get this was for one audience… women of about 25. But hey, us old-ass millennials love a meme too. So I hope I see a few more risks from our NHS in the near future… because it looks like this little trick paid off.

I promise I’ll move away from Instagram soon, but I’d be remiss not to share this lovely New Year’s content from Asics. Always true to its core - sound body, sound mind - the piece speaks for itself about the benefits of movement for health.

Did anyone see this when it first came out? In my notes I have the line written as “movement is medicine”, but going back to it now, the post reads: “movement can be medicine”. Did I misquote it? Or perhaps, is a sneaker brand subjected to the same red tape as us in healthcare marketing? It’s a claim after all. 🤔

So, Ozempic has a new ad over in the States. And it's quite the ripoff of the infamous naughties Apple Mac vs PC TV spot. For those of us in the UK, we’ll remember Mitchell and Webb, but in the US, actor Justin Long played the fun, cool Mac, whilst the awkward, square PC was played by comedian John Hodgman.

Sure, other brands and categories have had a go at parodying this Product A vs Product B format in the past, but not to this extent. So how close is the Ozempic ad to the original?

Same actors ✅ 

Very similar character dyamics ✅ 

A two person dialogue ✅ 

Comparative framing ✅ 

Yeah it’s the same ad.

But does copying consumer tech pay off in health? For those of us of the right sort of age to remember the ad - and that will be people who are in the sweet spot for a Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) diagnosis - this ad is signalling that Ozempic is the Mac of the GLP-1 class. It’s borrowing from a cultural code, though it has to rely on nostalgia and existing memory structures of the original ad to do so.

Executionally, my biggest question is whether the strategy could have been achieved by creating something new? Does it risk feeling lazy? Kinda. And is the tone right for a chronic disease? Maybe?

If I’m being generous (and I always will be for any brand taking a novel strategic or creative approach in health), this ad will likely do a good job of standing out in the noisy health and GLP-1 marketplace. Ozempic vs everything else is an easy concept to grasp. And that’s needed more than “Ozempic is a bit different”, especially when you’ve got a category obsessed with weight loss. And the line - “There’s only one Ozempic” - to the tune of the brand’s established sonic branding (Pilot - It’s Magic) is setting up long-term brand equity before the market inevitably becomes flooded with new players.

I personally quite liked what they did with the disclaimers, too. It was clear, not distracting, but woven into the execution.

This one has definitely made me stop and think about the ad, yes, but also how we tell stories in health. I’m keen to hear your thoughts on this one, so hit reply and let me know.

Whether we’re inside or outside of healthcare, we do love a bit of behavioural science for our brands, right? Probably because it makes us feel like smarty pants. But of course, there’s nothing wrong with applying a little bit of scientific rigour to our marketing.

This article from Thinkerbell in Australia - Your nudge is working. For your competitor, challenges us to think more about brand-coded framing and tone in our application and executions, to prevent dead ends in the customer experience.

OK, I think I am gonna wrap here this time. In the last issue, I did say I’d do a deeper dive into the CES… but honestly, I’m a bit over the hype (we’re all over it). There’s only so much AI and longevity a girl can take. And I’ve been putting it off. So instead, here are a few of the bits I’ve been consuming about the show, and perhaps they can keep you busy for the weeks ahead: 

⏳ TLDR: The 10 most impressive reveals of CES 2026 (so far), @airesearches via Instagram

🎧 Listen: The robots, phones and Lego of CES 2026, The Verge

📺 Watch: What is dominating the health tech agenda in 2026? - BBC News

📖 Read: What healthcare marketers can learn from CES - Chris Brandow, VCCP Health

Before I jump off and now that we’ve hit February and the year is fully in swing, I’d love to hear about all the (non-health) cultural bits and bobs you are excited about for 2026? Here are mine:

A fun year ahead then!!

OK that does it for me. If it’s your first time here, please consider subscribing, that way POPhealth will land straight in your inbox and you’ll never miss an issue of these musings. And for my longtime subscribers, thanks as always for your continued support. If anything here sparked a thought, a chuckle or caught your interest, why not share with a colleague too!?

Until the next one, good health and good culture 🫰

EML