The Beauty Industry’s Biggest Trick...and why The Ordinary's campaign makes complete sense
The Ordinary have launched a campaign called The Markup Marché, and the whole idea is actually very simple. They’ve taken everyday grocery items and rebranded them the way beauty products are marketed. So a banana isn’t just a banana, it’s now an All-Natural Magical Energy-Boosting Bar for $175. An avocado becomes a Glow-Enhancing Vitality Orb for $305.
It sounds ridiculous….but that’s the whole point.
If you saw that in a supermarket, you’d laugh and walk straight past it (well, most of us would). You wouldn’t even consider buying it. But when it comes to beauty, we accept this kind of thing all the time without really thinking about it. We see certain words, certain packaging, certain branding, and it feels more premium, more effective, more worth the price.
And most of the time, it has nothing to do with the actual ingredients.
That’s what this campaign is calling out. The idea that pricing in beauty is often driven by perception rather than what’s actually inside the product. The branding, the language, the way something is positioned can increase the price massively, even if the formula itself doesn’t justify it.
I think what’s interesting is that this isn’t new. This has always been the case, and I think a lot of us know it, yet turn a blind eye. But the way they’ve explained it makes it very hard to ignore. When you compare it to something as basic as food, it becomes obvious how much we’re influenced by presentation.
If someone told you that banana had been clinically developed to enhance energy levels and overall vitality, it sounds like something different, even though it’s not. And that’s exactly how a lot of beauty is marketed.
This doesn’t mean expensive products are bad or that everything affordable is better. It just means price isn’t always the best indicator of quality. There are expensive products that are worth it, and there are others where you’re paying more for how it looks and how it’s positioned than what it actually does.
I think this is why more people are starting to question what they’re buying. You don’t automatically assume something is better just because it’s more expensive. You start looking at ingredients, at what the product is actually meant to do, and whether it fits into your routine.
The Ordinary has always positioned itself around that idea. Keeping things simple, focusing on ingredients, and stripping away the extra layers that make products feel more luxury than they actually are.
What this campaign does well is take something that could feel quite technical and make it very easy to understand. You don’t need to know anything about formulations to get the point. You just look at it and think…why would I pay that for something so basic? And then you start applying that same thinking to beauty.
I think the bigger takeaway isn’t that you should stop buying certain products. It’s just about being more aware. Understanding what you’re actually paying for, and not getting pulled in by words that sound good but don’t really mean much.
Once you see it like that, it becomes much easier to decide what’s actually worth it for you and what isn’t. Some food for thought.
