The Canadian actor Michael Cera stood out this year as the centerpiece of the superbly zany campaign designed by Ogilvy PR New York for his client CeraVe (brand developed with dermatologists). Unveiled last February for immediate success on Youtube, this op has just won the Grand Prix Social & Influencer at the Cannes Lions. The opportunity to return to a series of activations which imbued the retinas of the Cannes jury with its offbeat humor so in keeping with the image of the actor.
The campaign, which made the resemblance between the actor’s name and that of the brand its flagship concept, served as a preamble to the broadcast of a CeraVe during the last Super Bowl. The agency explained in a press release that its research into social listeningallowed him to detect that for years, people had been wondering on social networks if Michael Cera was somehow related to CeraVe. It was false, of course, but the brand saw it as an opportunity to tackle the situation with humor. CeraVe began by unveiling a very cinematic trailer for the Super Bowl spot which suggested that the actor was the “brains” behind the interview…
The brand continued by publishing a series of fake news to maintain this false theory, going so far as to create a dedicated page on their website, presenting Michael Cera as “our visionary”. Among this series of content, there is notably the hilarious interview of the actor with the American podcaster Bobbi Althoff for his show “ The Really Good Podcast“. To conclude in style, the main spot is projected during the Super Bowl in which the actor extols, always with great creativity, the benefits of the creams designed by CeraVe.
In short, a succession of ridiculous images which end with the line: “ CeraVe. Developed by Michel Cera…Ve “. Enough to push the real thinking heads of the company, who cannot hide their perplexity, to answer him: “ CeraVe. Developed by dermatologists. Not by Michael Cera “. It didn’t cost anything to specify it.
