• by Sarah Mahoney , 8 hours ago

CeraVe has built a rare reputation for turning internet ribbing into on-brand success without losing credibility or control. First came 2024’s Michael CeraVe. Then last year, it was a staged insider-style NBA leak introducing Anthony Davis as “Head of CeraVe.” Now, the brand is leaning into one of basketball’s longest-running jokes: Kevin Durant’s famously dry ankles.

Its latest global campaign, “Moisturize Like a Derm,” casts Durant as the tongue-in-cheek “New Face of Legs,” reframing years of viral commentary as a teachable moment about total-body skincare. The rollout blends social-first teases, paparazzi-style visuals and dermatologist voices, flipping mockery into education. Marketing Daily spoke with Adam Kornblum, chief creative officer of L’Oréal U.S. Brands, about how CeraVe decides when a joke is worth building — and when it isn’t. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Marketing Daily: CeraVe keeps turning internet mockery into brand moments. What’s the internal test for knowing when a meme is something you can responsibly build a global campaign around, versus something you should leave alone?

Adam Kornblum: We know we live in this attention economy, and for brands, good disruptive attention is few and far between. We can’t just be disruptive for disruption’s sake. We need to be good at telling stories, and the stories need to be earned.

That means we don’t just put it out there and maybe someone likes it. We put it out there, and people share it, PR shares it, people are excited. There has to be some social media, guerrilla-style marketing tactics baked into the idea.

Marketing Daily: People have been looking at pics of KD’s ankles — and making jokes, like "His skin looks like crushed Tylenol" — for years. What made it the right time for a campaign?

Kornblum: When we focused on body moisturizers, we started with social listening. We asked ourselves, how do we get people to care about body skin? How do we put body skin at the forefront in a natural way? It’s often neglected, despite it being two times drier than facial skin. We knew we had to change behavior. 

Body skin only shows up in everyday life on social media in very specific moments — when your skin is suddenly on display. Kevin actually had what he called a “skincident,”and it went viral. At one of his games, the crowd was chanting "you need lotion," based on a moment when his ankle was on display. As a therapeutic skincare brand for all, we felt like we had to step in with dermatologist help and strengthen that skin barrier.

Marketing Daily: CeraVe’s work is intentionally funny, but it’s also very clinical. How do you keep dermatology credibility intact when the work is intentionally absurd?

Kornblum: We’re a dermatological brand. If you use CeraVe — as the No. 1 moisturizing brand for body in the U.S. — we’re going to help you. That’s the goal. We’re coming from a place of caring and being healthy. As long as we keep coming from that place, it’s a place where we can ward off some negative commentary.

And then, when we commit to the bit, we commit to the bit. You saw that with Michael CeraVe. We’ll optimize in real time based on conversations, but we also need to let the internet internet. We understand that.

Marketing Daily: A lot of brands want this kind of cultural participation but are afraid of losing control of the narrative — especially when sports fans and meme culture are involved. What gives you confidence you won’t get hijacked?

Kornblum: We have strong principles within the story. We know what we stand for. And we understand the storytelling and the potential angles. If we lean in and are playful, people will want to keep going with the story that we’re telling. It does require a level of storytelling that can be optimized in real time, but it’s well worth the risk.

Marketing Daily: You’ve described this campaign, running on social media and created by OBB, as unfolding in chapters, and I know it started last week, with KD addressing the mean comments on social media, along with medical commentary from dermatologist Dr. Wallace Nozile to ground the conversation in science. Then there were paparazzi-style photos of Durant in the gym, spotted with CeraVe Moisturizing Cream. Why does that structure matter?

Kornblum: I think of campaigns like a book. You need a strong introduction. We’ve all read books where you’re a few pages in, and you’re like, "This is boring," and others where you can’t put it down. You need a strong body — the meat of the book — and then a conclusion that makes you want more. When I look at ideas, I always ask, can I write a creative, immersive campaign storytelling book out of this idea? Some ideas don’t lend themselves to that. Some do. This one definitely does.

Marketing Daily: Is there a risk that this "edutainment" approach wears out?

Kornblum: It requires restraint. Not every idea should become a full story. Not every moment deserves multiple chapters. But when you have a product that’s developed with dermatologists, that truly helps people, and you can transform banter into valuable education, that’s when it’s worth doing.