Vaseline’s TikTok Virality Shows How A Heritage Brand Can Reclaim Relevance

Vaseline Verified: Key Findings

Vaseline’s lab-verified social content boosted consumer trust, while turning user-generated beauty hacks into measurable engagement.

The campaign won multiple Cannes Lions by translating online culture into a science-led, award-winning brand experience.

Collaborating with creators directly allowed Vaseline to reach Gen Z authentically, outperforming traditional advertising channels.

Campaign Snapshot

▶Brand: Unilever 

▶Campaign Title: "Vaseline Verified"

▶Launch Date: March 2025

▶Core Platforms: TikTok, Instagram

▶Primary Product / Focus: Vaseline Hacks

Vaseline has long been a staple on bathroom shelves, but its 2025 “Vaseline Verified” campaign proved a 153-year-old product can still feel modern, relevant, and even go viral.

Launched in March of last year, the social-first initiative invited scientists to test hundreds of viral TikTok and Instagram beauty hacks, awarding the ones that worked with a #VaselineVerified seal.

The campaign has amassed more than 136 million views and collected nine prestigious awards at Cannes, including a Titanium Lion and two Grands Prix.

Peter Schrooyen, Unilever’s Global VP R&D for Skin Care and Prestige, acknowledged that the skincare landscape can be overwhelming online.

"But by combining beauty science with creativity and leaning in to the social buzz around this much-loved brand.

"We saw an opportunity to help consumers feel confident about choosing and using our iconic Vaseline Jelly safely and effectively," Schrooyen explained. 

To let everyone know it means business, Vaseline also teamed up with its own Eden Collazo, Brian Crotty, and Megan Nicoletti to ensure everything was science-backed and safe for consumers. 

"Being part of this team means using my expertise to make beauty safer, smarter, and more inclusive, and that’s something I’m really proud of," Collazo shared.

Big With Beauty

Vaseline Verified turned the lab into a storytelling stage.

Short clips showed scientists testing hacks from waterproof makeup removal to fragrance longevity, giving fans clear, evidence-backed results.

Creators amplified these experiments by sharing the outcomes with their audiences, creating a loop of credibility and entertainment.

Unlike traditional broadcast campaigns, the effort relied on authentic, shareable moments across TikTok and Instagram.

The campaign also leaned into the younger generation's curiosity, showing that heritage brands can be informative and fun.

For Unilever executive Selina Sykes, it was essential for Vaseline to get with the times and explore new ways to reach consumers "without killing the party."

"How do brands authentically become part of the conversation?

"That’s always what we’ve been trying to do as brands, back to when people were hanging out their laundry and talking about what they used," she explained. 

Highlighting real science rather than scripted messages, Vaseline positioned itself as a trusted voice in the social beauty ecosystem.

And it did so while boosting both engagement and brand recognition. 

'Vaseline Verified' is a Lesson in Letting Your Product Do the Talking

For marketers, Vaseline offers an example of how to combine credibility, social listening, and user participation.

• Lab validation can add authority to user-generated content, increasing trust and engagement simultaneously.
• Partnering with creators to test trends enables brands to become part of existing cultural conversations authentically.
• Award recognition can follow when a campaign turns real insight into entertaining, shareable moments.

Other heritage brands like Dove and Glossier have similarly leaned on social-first, creator-driven campaigns to stay relevant in modern beauty markets.

Dove, for instance, launched its #ChangetheCompliment social campaign in October, which was meant to redefine how adults praise young girls. 

It's efforts like these that keep these brands fresh and on every beauty head's radar.

Our Take: Can Science Drive Culture?

For us, Vaseline Verified works because it turned everyone's curiosity and science experiments into a narrative people wanted to follow.

Countless brands have tried to chase trends and fail, but here, science became a story just as it is the message.

It gave creators room to play, consumers confidence to participate, and the brand a kind of renewed relevance it hadn’t held for decades.

Sometimes being part of the conversation matters more than dominating it.

We admire that Unilever lets its product and the people behind it do the talking.

In other news, Pantone recently revealed its color of the year, "Cloud Dancer," paving the way for multiple brand partnerships to flourish. 

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