Created by Uncommon Creative Studio, The Markup Marché is stocked with everyday grocery products relabelled with grossly inflated prices
Skincare advertising is full of products promising ‘magic’ results and ‘medical-grade’ formulas, often dressed up in the kind of glossy branding that’s designed to heighten perceived value. But The Ordinary has spent the last few years doing the opposite, dismantling the industry’s marketing machinery in full public view.
The brand’s recent work with Uncommon Creative Studio has consistently challenged beauty’s reliance on pseudoscience and celebrity culture. Last year’s The Periodic Fable campaign turned skincare buzzwords into a fake periodic table of ‘elements with zero science’, while another activation mocked the economics of celebrity endorsements by revealing how much consumers effectively pay for famous faces in beauty ads.
Now, The Ordinary are taking aim at another industry bad habit: inflated pricing. Running this month across six cities globally, The Markup Marché is an immersive retail activation that transforms ordinary supermarket goods into absurdly overpriced “luxury” items.
Created once again by Uncommon, the pop-up spaces resemble the kind of minimalist concept store currently dominating luxury culture. But the products quickly reveal the joke. A banana is relabelled as an ‘All-Natural Magical Energy-Boosting Bar’ and priced at $175.90, an avocado becomes a ‘100% Natural Glow-Enhancing Vitality Orb’ retailing for $305.90, while a toilet roll is rebranded as a ‘High-Retention Cleansing Cylinder’ costing $96.20.
According to research cited by the brand, 20% of UK consumers say they would pay up to £20 more for a product described as ‘magic’, while US shoppers are willing to spend 45% more on identical products if the packaging appears more premium. The Markup Marché turns those statistics into a physical metaphor, with shelves, signage and installations unpacking the pricing psychology behind beauty marketing.
Alongside the store itself, visitors can explore interactive elements including a ‘naming department’, where they can generate exaggerated ingredient labels, and The Jargon Bar, which applies skincare-style buzzwords to juices and drinks.
Nils Leonard, co-founder of Uncommon, said: “We wanted to take the codes the beauty industry relies on – language, packaging, presentation – and apply them to the most familiar products possible. When you see those same tactics used on everyday items, it exposes just how powerful and sometimes absurd those signals of value can be.”
The activation launched in Toronto before being rolled out across London, Paris, Melbourne, São Paulo and Mexico City, extending The Ordinary’s increasingly pointed critique of the industry it operates within. In a market saturated with miracle claims and marketing jargon, The Ordinary’s commitment to openness and transparency remains its sharpest point of difference.
Sourced from CREATIVE REVIEW
