What it had to solve
Differin Gel Defense needed cultural relevance with millennial women who prize realness, on a platform that punishes anything that feels like an ad.
The idea
Skip ad-speak: remake TikTok's own trends — #RentFree, This or That, Telling Off — with a zit-twist, casting acne itself as the banter villain.
How it works
Snackable videos built on the platform's tropes, with influencers sourced through healthcare PR agency Lippe Taylor, produced and edited by Great Machine with music from Shutterstock Studios.
What it did
No results reported; the work was designed to read as native content rather than advertising.
Background
In June 2021, dermatologist-led acne brand Differin launched TikTok work created by Deutsch NY, aimed at what the agency called the realest generation ever. The insight: TikTok had put a spotlight on millennial women's candid humour and become a huge hub for skincare education — so the brand would speak in the platform's own language.
The work highlights Differin Gel Defense through remakes of popular TikTok trends — #RentFree, This or That, Telling Off — each with a zit-twist. The snackable content takes on a protagonist, a.k.a. acne, with fresh banter and a remedy for anyone on the journey to skin clarity.
To increase cultural relevance, Deutsch NY worked with agency Lippe Taylor to cast the right influencers into select pieces of content.
Why it lands
Acne cast as the character gives a skincare brand a villain to banter with, not a before-and-after to lecture with.
Trend-native formats let a clinical brand join TikTok's humour without cosplaying as a creator.
Influencer casting through a healthcare-specialist agency keeps a dermatologist-led brand credible.
What you can take
On platforms that punish ads, the winning move is fluency: borrow the format's own tropes and let the problem play the villain.
Since then
The work launched in June 2021 across TikTok. No performance figures were reported.
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