Actors Octavia Spencer and Sofia Vergara will appear together in a Super Bowl LX commercial to raise awareness about kidney health, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease as part of the Detect the SOS campaign. The initiative—led by Boehringer Ingelheim in collaboration with the American Diabetes Association, the National Kidney Foundation, Mended Hearts, and WomenHeart—encourages people with high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes to get screened for kidney damage using the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (uACR) test.
“This is our special mission, and we’re in it together,” Vergara told Healthline, noting the Super Bowl’s reach as a chance to make a difference. The campaign highlights that kidneys can send a “hidden signal” of increased cardiovascular risk; detecting elevated albumin in urine early can prompt interventions to slow chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression and reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Charles Henderson, CEO of the American Diabetes Association, said educating people with diabetes about complications and screenings is central to the ADA’s mission. Cardiologist Andrew James Sauer, MD, added that major clinical guidelines recommend routine uACR screening alongside estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) for people at elevated CKD risk—those with hypertension or type 2 diabetes—so clinicians can intensify kidney-protective strategies earlier.
The campaign is personal for both stars. Vergara, who has family members with high blood pressure, urged her mother to get screened after learning about uACR. Spencer lives with type 2 diabetes and hypertension and said she learned about the uACR screening as she aged; although it made her nervous, she joined the campaign to inform others about what their kidneys are doing.
The effort also targets health disparities. The National Kidney Foundation reports Black and Latino Americans are respectively about four and 1.3 times more likely to have kidney failure than white Americans; Black people make up more than 35% of dialysis patients while representing roughly 13.5% of the U.S. population. Sauer noted that women of color face disproportionate burdens of diabetes, hypertension, CKD, and cardiovascular disease and often encounter barriers—limited access, under-resourced care, affordability, language and literacy gaps, and mistrust—that delay early detection.
Spencer encouraged people in the Black community to ask providers about heart and kidney risks, stressing the simplicity of screening for those with high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes. Vergara urged Hispanic and Latino communities to educate themselves, seek care, and communicate clearly with clinicians. She also emphasized reducing stigma around topics like menopause to help people manage health as they age.
Both stars hope the Super Bowl spot reaches broad audiences—particularly Black, Latino, and at-risk groups—and prompts conversations with healthcare providers about uACR and other screenings that can detect kidney damage early and help prevent serious cardiovascular events.
