Add one more popular face to the growing universe of superheroes on TV and streaming services and in film.
Megan Fox, the well-known actress and model, has a starring role in a new ad campaign from telehealth company Ro and her mission, done while donning a skintight red suit and portraying herself as the human embodiment of erectile-dysfunction product Ro Sparks, is to get people to talk about the problem and seek help to remedy it.
“Megan Fox has the ability to take the topic of ED out of a commercial and into the zeitgeist, into the shows, into the feed, where people are already talking about sex,” says Saman Rahmanian, co-founder and chief product officer at Ro. “That’s where the stigma lives and that’s where it has to be challenged.” The executive says Fox has signed a long-term deal to serve as a sort of brand ambassador and could be part of advertising for the next one to two years.
There are few nuances to Fox’s appearance and what it’s meant to inspire, and the new ad shows just how more direct pharmaceutical advertisers have become when tackling conditions that be embarrassing or sensitive. In a different era, TV networks were squeamish about putting ads for female arousal oil in primetime. Now many of them run commercials for razor blades and shavers meant to groom body areas that aren’t typically mentioned on air.
The new Ro ads teeter between cheeky and lascivious. “Don’t worry, my packaging is very discreet,” says Fox, during the commercial, before proceeding to give the viewer a wink.
Ro has reason to entice consumers. The global telehealth market was valued at $77.4 billion in 2025, according to Grand View Research, and is projected to grow from $87.7 billion in 2026 to $187.5 billion by 2033. Other telehealth providers have emerged, including Hims & Hers. In a nod to how aggressive various entrants in the category have become, both Ro and Hims & Hers ran commercials in the most recent Super Bowl.
Ads for erectile-dysfunction drugs were less direct when the market for the product launched in the late 1990s. Pfizer, which made Viagra, enlisted former Senator Bob Dole as a pitchman in ads. He told viewers how he suffered from ED following treatment for prostate cancer. Others took a more elliptical approach. When Lilly introduced Cialis in 2003, it brandished an image of a couple sitting side by side in separate bathtubs, hoping to inspire thoughts of romance, GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer tapped an actress, Marie Silvia, to tell TV viewers about how her significant other – “my man,” she called him in the ads – took the medicine.
Ro is simply using techniques that have worked in the past, says Rahmanian, the executive. Having a woman on screen discussing solutions for erectile dysfunction is “very intentional,” he says. “It may seem surprising to not have a man talk about” such medication, he says “because obviously the communication is for men. But what we have learned is that men really lean in when this topic is brought up from the woman’s perspective. It’s because ED is something that is about the couple. It is something that affects both. We have seen that partners who are often women are the ones that make this topic more discussable.”
Commercials featuring Fox will appear on linear TV and in streaming venues, and the company will test some innovative concepts in New York and Los Angeles, says the executive, where passers-by may be able to “literally pick up Megan Fox as Ro Sparks” on tear-away posters.
Ro has experience working with celebrities. In recent months, both Serena Williams and Charles Barkley have appeared in commercials for Ro’s GLP-1 medications. “I’m moving better on Ro,” she tells viewers. “I’m feeling better on Ro.”
No matter who the famous face is, says Rahmanian, the goal is to attack any stigma attached to taking the drug in question. “We work with the person authentically. We build on who the person is. Serena brought her real story to the platform. Charles Barkley did the same, and Megan brings her own persona, right? In all cases, w try to find a real connection between the person and what the conversation is that we’re trying to move forward? What’s an idea that would not work with anybody else?”
The executive said Fox was enthusiastic after being approached to take part in the campaign. “When we when we presented the idea to her, um, she didn’t just love the creative. She was excited about what it could do for couples. ED affects, not just the guy, but the couple. It affects intimacy. It affects the confidence. And Meghan Fox was all about, you know, helping couples have better sex.”
Not a plotline you’ll likely see in a movie from Marvel or DC.