Why Lady Gaga's Migraine Medicine Commercial Sparked Major Criticism
Lady Gaga has raised quite a few eyebrows over the years. Aside from her outspoken personality and willingness to push the boundaries the boundaries in Hollywood (such as some of her more outrageous looks), Gaga has also been in the middle of some controversies during her career. One of the most notable is her partnership with Pfizer to advertise their migraine medication, Nurtec ODT.
In June 2023, during Migraine Awareness Month, Gaga posted a photo on Instagram of her performing on her Chromatica World tour, endorsing the medication. The caption of the post detailed Gaga's personal struggles with migraines and how she's dealt with pain since she was a child. The post also contained safety information about the medication, and potential side effects. At the same time Gaga's post went up, a commercial was also released with footage of Gaga singing on her Chromatica tour and narrating her experience with taking Nurtec ODT. While it seemed innocent enough, Gaga's fans were not happy that it appeared as if Gaga agreed to the paid partnership to make a quick buck.
Fans accused Lady Gaga of selling out
Since Lady Gaga has been open about the fact that she's struggled with migraine pain since her early childhood, her advertisement of Nurtec ODT seemed like a reasonable enough endorsement for the pop star. However, her fans were not impressed with Gaga's timing surrounding the commercial, or the fact that she agreed to the partnership at all.
During the course of her stellar career, Gaga has stayed humble and maintained that money is not the driving force regarding her goals. In 2016, she even told fans while promoting her album "Joanne" (via The Guardian), "Kindness is what will create harmony, not celebrity and not fame." With this in mind, it was hard for fans to reconcile the singer who denounced the importance of money with the paid partnership with Pfizer that seemed to come out of nowhere.
One fan wrote (via Page Six), "Love you but this was so poorly timed, the LGBTQ community is actively under attack and you're securing a brand deal with pain killers?" While another simply said on Instagram, "Cash grab." The partnership with Pfizer also launched during Pride month, sparking more criticism from fans when Gaga didn't address it all. In the past, she's been known to be very vocal about supporting the LGBTQ+ community, so fans were put off that she seemed to replace her usual support of the community with a paid advertisement.
Lady Gaga took the time to recharge
Lady Gaga is known for having a very dedicated fan base, but she received lots of backlash for endorsing Nurtec ODT and posting about her paid partnership with Pfizer during Pride month. However, after the major criticism, Gaga took to Instagram and got personal with her followers about why she hadn't been posting as much and what she had been working on at the time.
"I may not be sharing as much of myself online as I have in the past, but I hope you know this time to myself has been extremely healing and recharging for my heart, mind, body, and creativity – to create within myself and to have a personal life that's just for me."
While Gaga never publicly addressed the partnership other than discussing her own personal experiences with migraines in the sponsored content, some of her fans came to her defense. One responded on X, formerly known as Twitter to others who were confused over Gaga's involvement with Pfizer, "Little monsters when they realize that Gaga, who wrote a whole album about being in pain, who has been telling us for over a decade about her chronic pain illness, and who has had to cancel entire tours due to her relentless pain, may actually be in pain."