The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
Andrew Stanleick is just over a year into his tenure as president of skin health and beauty at Kenvue North America. In 2025, he led reinvigoration efforts for 95-year-old Neutrogena, the largest beauty brand in Kenvue’s portfolio. In early November, Kenvue was acquired by Kleenex and Huggies parent Kimberly-Clark in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $48.7 billion.
“Neutrogena has such a rich history of bringing first-to-market ingredients to the mass market, really democratizing access to beauty for everyone. And I found that really appealing,” Stanleick said of joining the company. He has previously held leadership roles at Coty and Hydrafacial. Though Neutrogena has remained a force, in terms of R&D and its products themselves, Stanleick said, the way the brand told the story of its products was in need of repair.
“What we’d lost in the last few years to newer brands is that we weren’t telling [our] story in a new, better, different and interesting way. That’s what we’re doing a lot better this year. Moreover, we started to enhance our packaging to make it more interesting, shoppable and relevant,” he said.
First up was a classic tagline renovation, to: “Beauty to a science.” To drive home the message, in early February, Stanleick tapped pop star Tate McRae (8.6 million Instagram followers; 13.5 million TikTok followers) as the brand’s newest global ambassador, and then cast her, alongside Neutrogena’s “global innovation partner,” Dr. Muneeb Shah (1.1 million Instagram followers; 17.7 million TikTok followers), in a TV commercial. Neutrogena made it a 360-degree partnership, sponsoring McRae’s “Miss Possessive” global tour, which included offering samples at concert venues and featuring McRae’s face on Neutrogena gift sets.
The McRae campaign worked to strengthen the brand’s positioning: A BBDO OnePulse Brand Lift Study showed that the brand saw a 64-point increase in perceived relevance and an 11-point boost in consumer connection between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28. The campaign also contributed to the brand retaining the No. 1 position in value and sales volume for facial skin care across all sales channels in the first quarter, per the BBDO study.
Then, in at the end of March, Neutrogena worked with John Cena on a sunscreen campaign that riffed on the pro-wrestler’s famous, and often-memed, catchphrase, “You can’t see me.” The campaign promoted the brand’s new Ultra Sheer Mineral Face SPF 70 — an invisible sunscreen. “Although John Cena is an older personality, because of his involvement in culture, through movies and through memes, [the campaign] enabled us to reach a consumer we haven’t been talking to,” Stanleick said. That included both younger and male audiences. The same study found that, post-campaign, intent to use sunscreen, in general, rose 95%, interest in Ultra Sheer increased 71%, and zillennials were 170% more likely to say Neutrogena felt “in tune with culture.”
Neutrogena has been doubling (back) down on dermatologist partnerships, a strategy Stanleick said is key to winning back younger consumers. “This generation of younger consumers has never been better-educated on skin-care,” he said. “It’s not enough to have hope in a jar anymore.”
Stanleick oversees Kenvue’s Skin Health & Beauty portfolio in North America and EMEA, which, in addition to Neutrogena, includes Aveeno, OGX and Rogaine.
Though Kenvue’s global Skin Health & Beauty’s net sales declined year-over-year (down 3.2%), consumption for Neutrogena in fact improved and entered positive territory for the first time since Q4 2023, driven by U.S. acceleration.
