Your mom swore by them. For a thousand different nicks, scrapes, and pains, she turned to its products for relief. And, it's just as likely, so do you. They help you kill the germs that cause your bad breath, moisten your bloodshot eyes, soothe your flaking skin, calm your upset stomach, reduce your fever, suppress your nicotine fit, and reforest your thinning hairline. In fact, you and approximately 1.2 billion other people do all of these and more with their products, and yet you probably don't have a clue what the name of the company behind them is any more than you know the name of the ancient Egyptian who discovered that honey is an effective treatment for wounds.

Spoiler alert: This Invisible Man of a company is Kenvue Inc. Even with its 2024 revenues of $15.5 billion (that's close to twice the gross domestic product of bank-vault-rich Monaco) the company had a chronic ailment that there isn't an ouchless Band-Aid big enough to cover — it was as stubbornly imperceptible to the media as staph infections are resistant to antibiotics.

Formerly the Consumer Healthcare division of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Kenvue was spun off in 2022 along with J&J's enormously popular consumer-health brands, a rollcall that includes household staples such as Tylenol, Listerine, Aveeno, Neutrogena, and Band-Aid. The company's strategic move permitted J & J to place a laser-focus on its higher-margin pharmaceutical and medical-device segments. The spin-off's name was a hybrid of “ken,” a Scottish word meaning “knowledge,” and “vue,” a homophone of the word “view” suggesting “sight.” But as well-known as its product line might be individually (a 2023 Morning Consult survey ranked Band-Aid as the most trusted brand in America), Kenvue itself was somehow as invisible as those mysterious microbes that cause your halitosis.

The Plot Thickens
Few institutions are as flush with stories as the NYPL. It holds locks of hair from the heads of Walt Whitman and Wild Bill Hickok and served as the setting for many films, including “Ghostbusters” and “Breakfast at Tiffany's.” And it's famously guarded by Patience and Fortitude, the lions made of pink Tennessee marble that crouch outside the library's main entrance. These protective cats supplied a suitably theatrical entrance for Kenvue's guests when the event kicked off late in March 2024.

Once inside the NYPL, guests encountered the first chapter, titled “Welcome to Kenvue.” Looking like an enormous book with an archway cut into its “pages,” the entrance was a custom-made SEG frame guests passed through while they were greeted by a posse of Kenvue brand, communications, and research and development teams. Running for a brief 30 minutes, the initial chapter was more like a prologue setting the stage for the plot that would soon unfold. There was a full bar serving book-themed drinks such as “The Love Story,” a vodka and grapefruit cocktail, “The Hard Cover,” a tequila and elderflower drink, and “Young Adult,” a cucumber-based mocktail, as well as a variety of seafood, meat, poultry, and vegan hors d'oeuvres.

Flipping quickly to the next chapter, “Get to Know Our Brand,” Kenvue drew the curtain back in the cocktail space with a voilà! flourish to reveal the stunning Celeste Bartos Forum, a 6,400-square-foot space topped by a 30-foot-high glass saucer dome ceiling. Here was a setting of silken grandeur fit for Gilded Age robber barons with cast-iron piers and arches and marble ceiling panels. The company used projection mapping to conjure the illusion of fully stocked bookshelves aside a simulated crackling fireplace that Bob Cratchit might have mistaken for the one in his loving home in “A Christmas Carol.” Tailored lighting and sumptuous just-plucked florals signed off on the ambient splendor with a platinum pen. To say that the space is an architectural gem is like saying Tiffany's makes nice tchotchkes.

Once the nearly 80 guests transitioned into the opulent dinner space, Kenvue's North American Group President, Jan Meurer; Managing Director of Canada, Katie Decker; and Chief Scientific Officer, Caroline Tillett each took the stage to deliver an official toast welcoming the handpicked group. Curated by a Bravo Top Chef, the sit-down dinner was of olives and sourdough bread served with Aleppo, red vinegar, rosemary, and feta cheese, an asparagus salad of grapefruit espuma and pine nuts under a spray of tarragon vinaigrette, all topped by butter-roasted halibut. The carefully choreographed banquet allowed company reps and invited media to share their personal connections to Kenvue's brands in a laid back yet opulent setting. Story-starter cards that featured intriguing questions inspired by Kenvue brands were placed on the tables to provoke discussions and drive the kinds of insights usually portrayed by a lightbulb appearing over a cartoon character's head. Each table had cards specific to the invitees seated there. “How do you feel about viral skin care social trends? Do they help or hurt skincare users?” went one small-talk spark, while another asked, “When has your everyday pain stopped you from doing something you love?” People at the various tables discussed their answers that inevitably brought to mind Kenvue brands such as Neutrogena, Aveeno, and OGX, and the candid conversations revealed their thoughts as smoothly as the wardrobe door to Narnia swinging wide open.

In the middle of this convivial back and forth, poet Shanelle Gabriel took the stage. A singer best known for her riveting performances on HBO's “Def Poetry Jam,” and at venues from SXSW to the Vatican, Gabriel set loose a whirlwind of lines that whooshed! over the crowd, speaking of the way Kenvue's products following the arc of life from infancy to adulthood. Following the poem came the prose, with two of the aforementioned Kenvue leaders, Jan Meurer and Dr. Caroline Tillett, taking the stage. Each was brief as a flash fiction, speaking for just five to seven minutes.

Choose Your Own Adventure
Three is the smallest number that can form a pattern of beginning, middle, and end. In fairy tales, a magical fish grants “The Fisherman and His Wife” a trio of wishes that would hopefully transform their life from the mundane to the marvelous. Then there was the freeloading Goldilocks, who needed to try out three beds in the ursine household before finding one that offered the kind of deep restful slumber that melatonin and chamomile tea always promise.

In Kenvue's chapter three, “Experience Our Brands,” the media guests were invited into the renowned Astor Hall where they were greeted with espresso martinis. With its sweeping marble arches and sparkling chandeliers, the space was fit for monarchs and millionaires, setting the stage for a reception that was nothing short of royal. Here the company showcased its latest product launches and innovations. It revealed 17 new products, including Band-Aid Pro Heal technology, Neutrogena Mineral Invisible Daily Defense Sunscreen, and Tylenol Easy-to-Swallow caplets through a variety of immersive demonstrations. Separated by 11 freestanding partitions that were actually branded backdrops, the displays mimicked the look of various books and riffed on the library/story theme. For instance, the display for Johnson's Baby products highlighted the new refillable containers for the iconic brand's Head-to-Toe Wash. Libations in hand, guests had the opportunity to simply weave around the displays and explore each experience, ask questions, and engage with science demos straight out of “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” Attendees visiting the Zarbee's activation — a line of child-centered cough, digestive, immunity, and sleep aids — could see chamomile and lavender plants, learn about their benefits, which products they're in, and how they help the body. Guests stopping by the OGX hair-products section reveled in a demo that taught how lipids and protein prevent static electricity by utilizing treated and untreated hair swatches that looked like an outtake from “Dexter's Laboratory.” The Band-Aid brand booth offered a karaoke station where, in a custom wrapped melamine structure measuring 64-by 44-inches, you could record your warbling to the brand's classic earworm, the “Stuck on You” jingle, now officially as old as “Jaws,” and “Saturday Night Live,” and McDonald's “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.”

A Storybook Finish
From Odysseus to Harry Potter, every heroic undertaking has its own unique impediment. For the star of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey,” it was the ocularly challenged Cyclops, while for Harry Potter it would be the nasally nonconforming Voldemort. For Kenvue, it was the perennial antagonist of goals, a kind of business version of Professor Moriarty who always seems to be able to subvert or sabotage a company's objectives in any of a thousand insidious ways. In two and a half hours, about as long as it takes to listen to the audio version of “Breakfast at Tiffany's,” Kenvue had wined, dined, and played Scheherazade with its guests with a goal of achieving a 10-percent increase in its year-over-year earned media and growing its earned share of voice.

The company forged media relations with 59 of the attending publications, whose collective readership amount to about 1.8 billion, a number that is equal to the populations of China, the United States, and Tuvalu thrown in for good measure. Kenvue realized more than 35 stories that generated some 20 million media impressions. Almost 60 percent of attendees posted on social media, producing 5.2 million impressions. While Kenvue didn't offer precise numbers, they combined to grow its share of voice, and to accomplish more than the aimed-for 10-percent increase in its year-over-year earned media.

It's a tale as old as time. The hero, unknown and even invisible to many but capable of achieving great things, must navigate adversity in a way that requires resilience and unwavering commitment. Their obstacles are many and failure is always an unlucky decision away, but with hard work and audacity achieves an ambitious goal. For the company itself, the story of the event concluded with it exceeding its goals, and with the media coming out of the evening with the name “Kenvue” almost as familiar as “Band-Aid.” The End. E