Eli Lilly runs "Never Over" brand film during the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

Eli Lilly is running a minute-long brand film called "Never Over" during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina, part of a push that began in the games' first week ^[1]. The spot, made with agency Wieden + Kennedy Portland, draws a parallel between athletic training and the scientific method and ends with white text on a red background: "Health is never over." ^[1]

The film is narrated in a 1950s-style voiceover that walks through the steps Lilly says it has followed for more than a century — observe, question, hypothesize, experiment and test. "Test" is repeated several times before the narrator tells viewers to start the process over again ^[1].

Lina Polimeni, Lilly's senior vice president and chief marketing officer, compared the drugmaker's scientists to Olympic athletes who train over the course of their lives for a chance to compete at the games ^[1]. "The whole backbone of the storyline is the scientific method — you see a lot of sports play out the same way as science does," she said. "What matters is not actually getting to the podium, it's how you get there." ^[1]

Never Over has not been reported as naming a specific Lilly medicine. The one product-focused Olympic commercial reported so far is for Kisunla, the company's Alzheimer's drug, and features several Team USA athletes Lilly sponsors ^[1].

The campaign follows a Lilly spot in the pregame program for Super Bowl LX and a unit in the streaming broadcast on Peacock. Lilly has aired Never Over during broadcasts of Olympic competitions ^[1]. The games are described as a two-week Olympiad, and the campaign started less than a week in ^[1].

Beyond television, Lilly is running out-of-home activations in Italy and stateside, including a large display at the Oculus in New York and an in-person experience where visitors walk through an athlete's journey to the games ^[1]. Lilly has been a partner of Team USA since the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and is also a partner to Team Italy, and it adapted Never Over to run in Italian along with transportation takeovers and on-site activations ^[1]. Polimeni, who was born and raised in Italy, said the Italian version means she can send work to her parents that they will understand ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

This is corporate advertising rather than product advertising. Nothing reported about the campaign tells patients anything new about the benefits, risks, dosing or side effects of any specific medicine ^[1]. The Kisunla spot is the only product commercial described at the games so far ^[1]. For people weighing a GLP-1 or another prescription treatment, the practical point is that brand-level campaigns like this one are aimed at familiarity with the company rather than at a particular drug's label information. Polimeni said having a visual identity that represents the brand, and different storytelling, "is even more important than it has ever been" ^[1]. It has not been reported whether Lilly's Olympic advertising has any effect on the prices patients pay for its medicines.

What happens next

Lilly has teased additional activations that will carry the campaign through the closing ceremony, without specifying what they are ^[1]. The company has not disclosed whether Never Over will keep running in the United States after the games end, or whether a future version will name a specific medicine.