Charles Barkley is going on the offense after seeing his weight rebound. The NBA Hall of Famer has signed on as GLP-1 celebrity ambassador for Ro, working with the direct-to-patient telehealth company to document his attempts to lose the weight he regained after pausing GLP-1 treatment.
Weight was an issue for Barkley early in his career—he was dubbed “the Round Mound of Rebound” in his college days—and, though he was leaner while playing in the NBA, the star has said his waistline grew in retirement. Barkley said in a podcast interview last year that he lost more than 50 pounds on one of Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 drugs but went on to regain most of the weight after stopping treatment with Mounjaro.
Ro said Barkley “struggled to stay on treatment due to ongoing supply and access issues.” The athlete is restarting his treatment with Ro, a telehealth platform that provides access to obesity drugs such as Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy alongside their clinical support services.
Both pharmas have struck deals with Ro and other telehealth providers—with Novo’s announced just this week—that give self-paying patients access to the drugs at lower costs via the drugmakers’ own direct-to-consumer pharmacies. A monthly supply of Wegovy, for example, is $499 for cash-paying Ro patients, compared to its normal list price of about $1,350.
Barkley will star in a series of ads for Ro’s GLP-1 offering, starting with a 30-second spot that sets out his ambition to lose 65 pounds. The ad shows Barkley sitting on a film set, where someone working there says Ro can help Barkley lose the weight, “but they can't help him lose his big mouth.”
The trash talk catches the attention of the former pro, who stops the person from walking away and says he has big plans for the brand. “Maybe I can write a Ro jingle,” Barkley muses, before embarking on a reworked rendition of the song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” that puns on the telehealth provider’s name.
“Maybe we could even have me and a mascot,” Barkley says. “Oh, wait, am I the mascot?”
Barkley slips in lines about the telehealth provider’s value proposition amid the jokes, explaining that he is involved in the project “because GLP-1s work, and Ro makes it crazy convenient.” Ro said it plans to use the ads to talk up the convenience of its digital experience, including access to GLP-1 drugs.
Zach Reitano, co-founder and CEO of Ro, said in a statement that Barkley is “honest, inspiring and deeply relatable.” Ro plans to tap into those attributes for the foreseeable future. The telehealth provider said it will work with Barkley and his newly launched production company, Round Mound Media, on projects to raise awareness of GLP-1 drugs and educate people about obesity “over the coming years.”