CeraVe relied on the internet gossip engine to build buzz without explaining anything. As the photos went viral and fueled online conspiracies that Cera was a skincare mogul, the stunts garnered press coverage from the likes of Page Six, People, The Cut, Us Weekly and Mail Online.
“We phased out the storytelling,” said Adam Kornblum, senior vice president and head of global digital marketing for CeraVe, at the time, revealing that in the days after the Big Game, CeraVe garnered 18 billion earned media impressions and 10 billion social media impressions with help from creative shop Ogilvy.
Content that hacks culture
For celebrity publicists, this isn’t a new practice. In the dawn of social-first media, it’s a powerful tool.
Stars have long enlisted photographers to take candid snaps of their vacation or trip to the store, usually in the name of controlling a narrative or endorsing a product.
See: Singer Grimes reading a copy of The Communist Manifesto on the sidewalk after separating from Elon Musk, or the dozens of images of Dunkin’ ambassador Ben Affleck carrying an iced coffee. In the case of the latter, the coffee chain even referenced some of these images in its Super Bowl 57 ad.