As for men, they’re coming along. In fact, males make up one-third of the customer base of Kiehl’s. Still, the skin and hair care products brand, which eschews traditional advertising, felt it needed to make an extra effort to get guys interested in its new antiaging moisturizer. So Kiehl’s hired Marvel Custom Solutions to create Captain America: Transformation & Triumph, a limited-edition comic book designed to promote Kiehl’s Facial Fuel “Heavy Lifting” Firming, Lifting, Anti-Wrinkle Moisturizer for Men.

The comic book, which is currently free at Kiehl’s stores with the purchase of any product and available online, too (it was also distributed via an issue of The Wall Street Journal), finds the evil Cobra descending upon Kiehl’s flagship store determined to get his hands on a serum as well as machinery rumored to have been used back in the day to turn scrawny patriot Steve Rogers into the mass of liberty-loving muscle known as Captain America.





The idea to create a comic book came from Chris Salgardo, president of Kiehl’s. Enamored with X-Men and The Avengers, he has boxes of comic books in his Manhattan office. (And like any good fanboy, he has made sure each one is safely stored in a plastic sleeve with a sturdy cardboard backing.)

Initially, Salgardo envisioned Kiehl’s producing a comic book on its own, but then he decided to go to the experts, meeting with Marvel Custom Solutions, which regularly works with brands to incorporate its characters into customized products. “Talk about tapping into your inner child–I cleared my schedule for that meeting,” Salgardo says.

The conversation began with talk about which one of Marvel’s characters would be a good match for Kiehl’s. “When we do a Marvel story, it needs to be personal. If the hero doesn’t have a personal connection to the action, then the story has no weight,” says Marvel Custom Solutions editor Bill Rosemann, noting, “Each Marvel character speaks to something different. Spider-Man is about responsibility. Iron Man is about using your brain, using technology to help others. Captain America is about one person doing the right thing against the odds to protect the innocent.”

It didn’t take long before both sides agreed that Captain America was the right superhero to represent Kiehl’s.