The Best Super Bowl Ads Ever (No 2): How CeraVe turned a conspiracy theory into marketing gold
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The Best Super Bowl Ads Ever (No 2): How CeraVe turned a conspiracy theory into marketing gold
"When CeraVe aired 'Michael CeraVe' during Super Bowl LVIII, it didn't just launch a commercial; it paid off weeks of online speculation that actor Michael Cera might secretly be behind the skincare brand. The spot played like a surreal perfume parody, with Cera wandering through dreamlike scenes, massaging lotion into his skin and claiming he invented the moisturizer, before the final twist revealed the truth that CeraVe is developed with dermatologists, not Michael Cera."
"The campaign was the culmination of a digital-first strategy that seeded a tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theory across social media, with staged sightings, influencer content and viral moments suggesting Cera might really be connected to the brand. By the time the game arrived, the ad functioned less as a standalone commercial and more as the punchline to a cultural joke audiences were already in on, helping it dominate conversation and earn massive media attention and engagement."
CeraVe aired 'Michael CeraVe' during Super Bowl LVIII, resolving weeks of online speculation that Michael Cera might be behind the skincare brand. The spot played like a surreal perfume parody, featuring Cera in dreamlike scenes massaging lotion and claiming he invented the moisturizer, then revealing that CeraVe is developed with dermatologists. Readers voted the ad the second-best Super Bowl commercial ever. The campaign used a digital-first strategy that seeded a tongue-in-cheek conspiracy across social media with staged sightings, influencer content and viral moments. The ad functioned as the punchline to a prebuilt cultural joke, multiplying attention and engagement. The approach reframed Super Bowl marketing around narrative and participation.
Read at The Drum
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