How Did The Ordinary Expose Beauty Industry Markups?

The Ordinary launched “The Markup Marché,” a fake supermarket designed to expose how beauty brands often inflate prices through luxury branding, exaggerated language, and aspirational packaging.

The activation transformed ordinary grocery products into absurdly expensive “premium” items, showing consumers how marketing alone can drastically change perceived value.

What Was “The Markup Marché”?

Created in partnership with Uncommon Creative Studio, the experience opened in Toronto under the slogan “Buy the ingredients, not the hype.”

Inside the supermarket, common foods like oranges, coconuts, bananas, and avocados were rebranded using the same overcomplicated terminology often seen in skincare advertising.

The goal was to parody the beauty industry’s habit of making simple ingredients sound revolutionary.

Why Were the Food Prices So Expensive?

The exaggerated prices were intentional.

A basic orange, for example, became a “Vitamin C Radiance Amplifying Capsule” priced at $266. A coconut was repositioned as a luxury hydration treatment.

By changing the language and presentation, the campaign demonstrated how brands can artificially increase perceived product value — even when the ingredients themselves remain ordinary.

How Did the Campaign Mock Beauty Marketing?

The activation included interactive experiences that playfully criticized the beauty industry’s excessive jargon and “premium” storytelling tactics.

Visitors were invited to invent pretentious names for everyday foods while tasting juices packaged like skincare products, complete with ingredient-heavy labels and luxury-inspired branding.

The experience blurred the line between grocery marketing and beauty advertising to reveal how similar the tactics can be.

What Message Was The Ordinary Trying to Communicate?

The Ordinary used the campaign to reinforce its commitment to transparency, ingredient-focused skincare, and fair pricing.

The brand wanted consumers to question whether they are paying for actual quality — or simply for sophisticated branding and inflated promises.

According to Amy Bi, VP of Brand at The Ordinary, the campaign aimed to show that consumers would never accept misleading marketing in everyday grocery shopping, so they should not accept it in beauty either.

Why Does This Campaign Work So Well?

“The Markup Marché” works because it takes familiar beauty industry tactics and places them into a completely different context.

Once consumers see those same luxury marketing techniques applied to simple food products, the absurdity becomes obvious. The campaign turns an industry critique into an entertaining, highly visual, and shareable real-world experience.

It also aligns perfectly with The Ordinary’s minimalist brand identity, making the activation feel authentic rather than performative.