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RX&O's Jessica Ehrhardt Crafts Compelling Narratives for Bio-Curious Consumers
Helping health and wellness advertising reach a higher level
Jessica is a a creative lead and healthcare provocateur. Currently, she’s tasked with helping to build RX&O, the health and wellness arm of X&O. A former pre-med neuroscience student turned playwright turned pharma creative, she’s spent her career trying to make health advertising feel more human, emotionally dangerous, culturally awake and impossible to ignore. Jessica has worked across rare diseases, aesthetics, oncology, infant nutrition and beyond. Whatever the task, she seeks to distill complex science into bite-sized morsels that fuel creativity and drive business growth.
We spent two minutes with Jessica to learn more about her background, her creative inspirations and recent work she’s admired.
Jessica, tell us …
Where you grew up, and where you live now.
Growing up, I moved all over the place. I lived in Westport, Conn., Jamaica (not Queens—the island), Beverly Hills and Alpharetta, Ga. Let’s just say the chaos of my upbringing prepared me like Jedi school for advertising. I’m currently living in Atlanta.
How you first got interested in health.
When I was a kid, I carried around this giant silver spiral-bound book called Earthsearch. It was filled with experiments, spinning wheels, hidden discoveries and strange facts about how the world worked. It was more like a portable museum exhibit than a book. Looking back, I think I fell in love with science as much as I fell in love with discovery. It was the captivating combo of science + story + delivery.
One of your favorite projects you’ve ever worked on.
“The Story of Gilenya.” Five years after launch, the breakthrough MS drug was trapped in a cycle of safety misperceptions. Rather than finding a better rebuttal, I went looking for a completely different story. That search led me to a strange little insect fungus used in ancient Chinese medicine—one that survives by suppressing its host’s immune system. This ultimately inspired the breakthrough that became Gilenya. It felt more like folklore than pharma. We turned the discovery into a beautifully illustrated animation and handcrafted book that gave sales reps an entirely new way into the conversation. This helped shift perceptions without arguing against them.
A recent project you’re proud of.
I’m especially proud of “The World’s Largest Lost & Found,” an awareness campaign for migraines that transformed a traditional disease-education assignment into an immersive traveling exhibit. The original brief was asking for another information-dense microsite. But working closely with my account partner, creative team and an incredibly brave group of Pfizer clients, we reframed the problem and sold a much larger idea. We created a physical lost-and-found filled with missed milestones, abandoned plans and everyday experiences taken by migraine. It sparked conversations, generated national attention and helped shift the narrative from “it’s just a headache” to a much deeper understanding of the disease. What makes me proud isn’t just the awards or the reach—it’s helping an overly-complicated brief become an invitation to shift perspective at scale.
One thing about how health is evolving that you’re excited about.
Consumers are becoming more bio-curious. They don’t just want health claims—they want mechanisms, evidence, specificity. They want to understand what’s happening inside their bodies and actively participate. They’re replacing green juice mysticism with biomarkers and hormone panels. The deeper people go down the wellness rabbit hole, the more we need compelling translators holding the flashlight.
Someone else’s work, in health or beyond, that you admired lately.
“Storm” by GENER8ION and Yung Lean, directed by Romain Gavras. It’s a short film disguised as a music video. A manifesto disguised as a fever dream. A seven-minute cinematic poem about boyhood that explodes into one of the most beautiful pieces of choreography I’ve seen. Watching it was like pouring a Cherry Coke Slurpee on my brain—cold, sweet, nostalgic and impossible to explain to someone who hasn’t tasted it.
A book, movie, TV show, or podcast you recently found inspiring.
I met a wizard with an unpublished manuscript. It’s called The Invitation to the Great Game and it sincerely changed the way I see the world and my place in it. If anyone knows a good publisher, please let me know. I sent a LinkedIn message to Doug Abrams, but he hasn’t written back yet lol.
A visual artist, band or musician you admire.
Vincent Stall aka King Mini. At Publicis I first noticed the tiny crown tattooed on his finger and his unforgettable hair—this wild gray flame rising from the back of his crown. And then I found his illustrations. He draws these strange little men with weird proportions and mullets and pain. They’re grotesque and tender and hilarious and deeply human. Every drawing feels like a character from some forgotten American mythology. At a time when so much creative work feels generated and polished, his drawings still feel handmade and unmistakably alive.
Your favorite fictional character.
Dostoevsky’s Underground Man. He’s bitter, self-sabotaging, contradictory and often impossible to like. But long before psychology had language for it, Dostoyevsky created a character who understood something unsettling about humans. We wreck things. We overthink. We choose pride over connection. We stand in our own way and call it destiny. The Underground Man is a reminder that people are gloriously irrational creatures—and that our greatest battles are rarely with the world. They’re with ourselves.
Someone worth following on social media.
Joe Burns on LinkedIn. My God I love that salty Brit’s strategic POV. So sharp—and always masterfully articulated.
Your main strength as a marketer/creative.
Translation that trots. I’m precisely half scientist, half storyteller. Give me rabid complexity and I’ll have it leash-trained and licking your face by the end of the week.
Your biggest weakness.
I’m a chronic last-minute refinisher. I’ll still be tweaking language, restructuring slides or chasing a better insight minutes before a presentation. It’s stressful, irrational, and somehow—so far—it always works out. (Our lovely publicist is currently sending threatening emails about these interview responses.)
Something people would find surprising about you.
My mother, Debra Ehrhardt, is Jamaican—born and raised in Kingston. I grew up around larger-than-life storytelling, belly-aching laughter, big drama and even bigger emotions. In Jamaican culture, a story isn’t something you tell quietly from a seated position. It’s performance. It’s rhythm. It’s interruption. It’s “Mi cyaan believe dis!” while waving your hands so wildly you knock over a glass and things go flying. My mom’s own journey to America became an award-winning one-woman show called Jamaica Farewell. I’m incredibly proud of her. And I think that heritage shaped almost everything about how I communicate creatively.
2 Minutes With is our regular interview series where we chat with creatives about their backgrounds, creative inspirations, work they admire and more. For more about 2 Minutes With, or to be considered for the series, please get in touch.
