Lily Health, "Never Over"
Eli Lilly’s “Never Over” campaign draws a parallel between Olympic sports and scientific research. Built around the scientific method, the film draws from archival sports footage, lab research, and medical imaging to illustrate the persistence required to push both human performance and human health forward.
The video shared on Youtube in early 2026, has received over 17,000 views on Youtube. With more than 40,000 employees worldwide and clinical research underway in 55 countries, Lilly has been advancing healthcare innovation since its founding in 1876 by Colonel Eli Lilly.
The film directed by Martin + Lindsay was created from decades worth of archival material, showing that resilience is not simply one moment but a movement. The campaign was launched ahead of the 2026 Winter Games in Northern Italy alongside the paralympic games.
The brand also partnered with athletes to share their own personal health journeys and stories of resilience for this campaign. According to Ad of the World, Lilly collaborated with Winter Olympians and Paralympians, including bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, to share stories of overcoming personal health challenges.
Lily also reinforced their commitment to community health and impact by making donations to U.S. based nonprofits for every win made by Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The program, Lily’s milestones into meaning, donated $5,000 to health-focused non-profits for every medal won or record broken, supporting greater health equity.
Jennifer Oleksiw, Lilly’s global chief customer officer, shared in an interview with Fierce Pharma, “At each Olympic Games, we believe that athletes are pushing past their limits, and this aligns to Lilly’s pursuit of continuously advancing innovation in order to achieve holistic health for our patients and our communities,” Oleksiw said.
“Just as we never stop fighting to advance our medicines, to change human health, the passion and commitment from our athletes both on and off the Olympic stage is really never over. This aligned mission of working through adversity, training really hard, failing along the way, only to get back up again is what aligns and unites us,” she continued.
At the center of the campaign was the one minute long video that aired on NBC’s broadcast of the games opening ceremony. Beyond the TV Ad, the campaign included a localized campaign in Italy, as well as print placements in the New York Times, the L.A. Times, and Time Magazine. Out of home ads also ran in New York and Los Angeles in addition to digital content featured throughout the Olympics and Paralympics, a company spokesperson shared with Fierce Pharma.
This 2026 campaign follows Lilly's earlier Olympic initiatives in 2020 and 2024, during which the company positioned itself as a medicine company committed to putting health first. "Never Over" builds on that foundation by connecting the brand's scientific mission with a universal human story of persistence. Rather than focusing solely on products, the campaign uses storytelling, athlete partnerships, and community impact to strengthen Lilly's corporate brand and demonstrate how healthcare innovation and human resilience often go hand in hand.
