Ogilvy campaign featured the actor Michael Cera pretending to have developed the skincare product

First Published By AdAge:

The in-game commercial followed weeks of clever teasers in social media. Credit: CeraVe

CeraVe’s comical Super Bowl spot starring Michael Cera won the Super Clio on Sunday night, an annual award given by the Clio Awards to the best ad in the game, as judged by a panel of top industry execs.

The 30-second spot, which aired in the first quarter, featured a ludicrous premise with Cera claiming to have developed the L’Oréal-owned skincare brand. The bulk of the spot plays out like a sultry perfume ad, which turns out to be a pitch video Cera is screening for CeraVe execs to get them on board with his promotional idea.

The CeraVe execs are less than impressed.

The CeraVe commercial was the culmination of a weeks-long teaser campaign that included influencer activations, paparazzi-style photos on social media and a video teaser that included much of the parody footage from the in-game spot. Ogilvy PR North America developed the campaign.

The spot was one of six recognized by Ad Age with five stars as the best ads of the game.

The Super Clio jury featured 17 top execs from the industry: 

• Bianca Guimaraes, partner and executive creative director, Mischief

• Danilo Boer, global creative partner, FCB Global

• David Kolbusz, chief creative officer, Orchard

• Esi Eggleston Bracey, chief growth and marketing officer, Unilever

• Greg Harrison, chief creative officer, MOCEAN

• Islam ElDessouky, global VP of creative for Coca-Cola, The Coca-Cola Company

• Jason Campbell, chief creative officer, Translation

• Jason LaFlore, creative director, 72andSunny

• Keith Cartwright, founder and chief creative officer, Cartwright

• Kerstin Emhoff, CEO, Prettybird

• Kristin McHugh, SVP and chief brand officer, Verizon

• Margaret Johnson, chief creative officer and partner, Goodby Silverstein & Partners

• Myra Nussbaum, chief creative officer and president, Havas Chicago

• Rafa Rizuto, chief creative officer US-Hispanic LATAM, Dentsu Creative

• Samira Ansari, chief creative officer, New York, Ogilvy

• Shannon Washington, global chief creative officer, Gotham

• Walter Geer, chief creative officer, innovation North America, VML

“Everyone is putting forth their best work in the same arena [on the Super Bowl], and with the Super Clio we celebrate the people taking bold creative risks,” said Nicole Purcell, CEO of the Clio Awards. “This award signifies that their peers and the leaders at the top of their industry saw their idea as the best of the best. It’s an incredible honor to be recognized this way and we love to share in the excitement of such an accomplishment.”

The Super Clio trophy is a supersized version of the standard Clio trophy. It stands 22 inches high, matching the height of the NFL’s Lombardi Trophy.

Past winners of the Super Clio include: 

• Tubi, “Rabbit Holes” (2023)

• Coinbase, “Less Talk, More Coinbase” (2022)

• Amazon, “Alexa’s Body” (2021)

• Snickers, “Fix the World” (2020)

• Bud Light x HBO, “Joust” (2019)

• Tide, “It’s a Tide Ad” (2018)

• National Geographic, “Bad Romance” (2017)

• Jeep, “Portraits” (2016)

• Snickers, “Brady Bunch” (2015)