Michael CeraVe

CeraVe sat in a crowded skincare market saturated with celebrity endorsements, its dermatologist-developed heritage under pressure from competitor claims and its following limited to a niche TikTok audience. Ogilvy's read of the category was that skincare marketing leans on celebrity endorsement while audiences enjoy pulling apart what is real and what is staged, so a deliberately suspicious celebrity story would invite participation rather than skepticism fatigue. Because Michael Cera shares part of his name with the brand, the claim that he created CeraVe was absurd enough to be funny and plausible enough to debate.

The campaign, run by WPP Onefluence and led by Ogilvy PR North America, spread the lie that Cera developed CeraVe, then debunked it in a Super Bowl commercial with the truth that the brand is developed with dermatologists. Creator HayleeBaylee released a seemingly candid video of Cera signing CeraVe bottles, paparazzi-style photos circulated, Cera released his own fake commercial, and the Super Bowl spot delivered the debunk through a boardroom of CeraVe dermatologists.

It worked because a name coincidence made speculation itself the distribution mechanism, and because the reveal was the brand claim, so attention resolved onto CeraVe's positioning rather than dissipating with the joke. The work ran across social media, influencers, earned media and the Super Bowl broadcast. No achieved performance figures appear in the reviewed sources; the campaign won five categories at the 17th Annual Shorty Awards, and Ogilvy's page lists a Cannes Lions Grand Prix and a Super Clio.