The Unilever-owned brand is the number-one selling lotion in the country, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t need a makeover. So Vaseline executives hired M Booth & Associates to create a “reinvention” themed event to introduce the newly designed and reformulated product line to beauty editors.

M Booth worked with T & L Event Management to transform Splashlight into an interactive exhibit with a spa-like feel. Upon entering, the editors walked past a wall of Vaseline products from various decades; inside the main space, three living vignettes used props from Something Different and staff from the Party
Crew to bring Vaseline’s new formulas to life. (The vignette for Vaseline Aloe Cool & Fresh, for example, featured models relaxing in wooden lawn chairs, sipping summery drinks.) A hand massage bar, staffed by male models, gave beauty editors a chance to relax and test the new products firsthand (so to speak).

After a brief presentation on the brand’s history (the original Vaseline Petroleum Jelly dates back to 1870) and new look, the editors were invited to reinvent themselves, too. Three stations were set up on two different floors of Splashlight for editors to learn about and try new hobbies—wine tasting, cooking, and handbag design.

Go Catering provided a buffet table of sushi rolls and salads, with a giant ice sculpture of a bottle of Vaseline anchoring the table, and caterwaiters, clad in spa-like white pants, white polo shirts and black flip-flops, passed hors d’oeuvres like black bean cakes with mango salsa and sour cream.

—Erika Rasmusson Janes