What's With Michael Cera's Cream? CeraVe's Weird Super Bowl Commercial, Explained

The internet can't stop talking about Michael Cera's cream. Super Bowl 2024 is in full swing, which means audiences around the world have been subjected to tons of beer and fast food commercials, as well as the occasional teaser for upcoming blockbusters. The real show-stopper of this year, however, was an ad for CeraVe, which features "Superbad" and "Barbie" actor Michael Cera. In the ad, Cera says that he's the man behind CeraVe, the exceptionally popular skin scream. Over-the-top and dramatic (in line with most Super Bowl ads), Cera continues to tout how he's responsible for the product, revealing that, "I am CeraVe." 

In case the joke went over your head, CeraVe sounds similar enough to the actor's last name. As the commercial continues, Cera climbs a mountain and moisturizes it with his cream. And, somehow, he's able to communicate with dolphins. It's a lot, and definitely one of the funniest ads that have come out this Super Bowl. The spot wraps up with Cera in the CeraVe office, showing execs his over-produced ad... but they don't care for it. 

Audiences have been patiently waiting for the Cera x CeraVe collab to drop for a while now — the actor was "spotted" (via TikTok) a couple of weeks ago at a pharmacy signing CeraVe products and putting stickers of his face on the bottles. 

The Michael Cera ad for CeraVe is genuinely hilarious and a breath of fresh air in a sea of Super Bowl ads that rely on nostalgia. It's a brilliant stroke of marketing and X (formerly known as Twitter) users are already singing its praises. Marketing guru Jack Appleby took to the platform to share just how effective the advertisement is, writing, "[I]t's legitimately a funny commercial [...] plays on the TikTok gag [...] still focused on the product!" Appleby ultimately labeled the CeraVe ad as one of the best advertisements from this year's game. 

"Cerave with Michael Cera is a perfect commercial. that is how advertising works?" questioned @Danny_Heifetz. "I know they've been hyping it all week but that Michael Cera CeraVe ad was genius," wrote @emzanotti. In what's proven to be a chaotic Super Bowl, Cera's ad is uniting marketer and stan Twitter in a unique way. While it remains to be seen if CeraVe continues to use Cera to boost their product, we're just glad that the "This Is the End" actor got a chance to talk about his cream... on national television.