Johnson & Johnson’s spinoff company commissioned a poem about its brands

In a recent press event in New York by Kenvue, the Johnson & Johnson spinoff that now owns popular brands including Tylenol, Neutrogena, Listerine, and Band-Aid, the company pulled out all the stops.

Dinner was prepared by Top Chef host Kristen Kish, and Niecy Nash-Betts, who recently won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy for her role in Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, introduced a new menopause wellness platform, Versalie, as its paid spokesperson.

But perhaps the most unexpected aspect of the event, dubbed “a dinner and storytelling experience” on the invitation, was that Kenvue commissioned Shanelle Gabriel, a poet and singer, to compose and recite a poem about its products.

The dose not taken: While the subject may have been a portfolio of drugstore brands, the tone and delivery were elevated. Think Amanda Gorman at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, although this poem was not about healing the nation so much as healing dermatitis.

“Kenvue helped me scoop my nephew in my arms, kiss and then cover his booboos, was there when my right hand warmed at his forehead,” Gabriel read from the stage. “Children’s Tylenol relieved his fever, calmed our fears, a medicine his parents could trust.”

Family was a recurring motif. “Kenvue has calmed many a parent’s worry and struggle, offered access to be the healers of our households,” Gabriel read.

How do I scrub thee? A verse about her sister told of her “saturating her eczema in Aveeno so that embraces from loved ones could be received without hesitation.”

Also coming to the rescue was another skincare brand, as Gabriel evoked “my best friend swearing by Neutrogena, moisturizing and restoring the face that her puberty speckled.”

There was even the minty fresh whiff of romance, namely “the familiar swish of Listerine, the prelude to many a first date.”

One factor in Johnson & Johnson’s spinning off its consumer products into the new company, Kenvue, and perhaps commissioning a poet to laud it, is the $8.9 billion settlement J&J agreed to pay in 2023 to tens of thousands of plaintiffs who alleged that talcum powder in its products caused cancer. (Johnson & Johnson has maintained that the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.)

When Gabriel finished her reading, Caroline Tillett, chief scientific officer at Kenvue, seemed moved by the paean to the brands.

“Shanelle, that was truly beautiful,” Tillett said. “Truly beautiful."