The Ordinary’s $175 Banana Is Something To Chew On
With groceries rapidly becoming the luxury market’s latest it-product, a banana labeled as an “All-Natural Magical Energy-Boosting Bar” and priced at $175.90 doesn’t seem so crazy. Some might even consider it a steal! But as the old Transformers tagline goes: there’s more here than meets the eye. The banana is just one of the many items to be found in The Ordinary’s latest campaign, “The Markup Marché,” which sees the cult beauty brand go IRL with a chain of grocery stores that take aim at overinflated beauty industry pricing and high-end supermarket mania.
From Toronto and London to Sao Paolo and Melbourne, The Ordinary opened six beautiful, branded, and fully fabricated grocery stores that look like the next viral it-destination, complete with a raft of absurdly overpriced items, like “Exotic Thirst Defying Hydration Vessel” (a coconut, $195.50) and “High-Retention Cleansing Cylinder” (toilet paper; a steal at $96.20 per roll). There’s even a $305.90 avocado, but to be fair, that’s just the usual price for a green avocado in Melbourne.
It’s all very Chanel Fall/Winter 2014, but these temporary pop-ups aren’t meant to sell you on some expensive adaptogen or $22 smoothies made with mushrooms and “high-grade sea moss gel” — they’re made to pop the beauty industry’s buzzword bubble, which feels very on-brand.
Since its launch in 2016, The Ordinary’s commitment to ingredient transparency and reasonable pricing has made it a financial powerhouse and a viral star, with millions of followers across social media. Those frosted glass bottles have had a chokehold on medicine cabinets for years, including mine, because The Ordinary is simply that girl: simple, consistent, and affordable.
Its new campaign feels perfectly timed to confront the funhouse mirror of reality, where everything is warped by optimization culture and branding that promises to help you live longer, healthier, and sexier lives. When people are willingly paying 45% more for the exact same product if its packaging is more “premium,” and gourmet grocery stores like New York’s Meadow Lane regularly inspire snaking queues of people willing to spend $55 on three items (including occasionally undercooked gluten-free nuggets that cost $15), sometimes it takes a fake shop with $175 bananas to shake you out of your stupor.
The Markup Marché enters the Wild Wild West of overinflated health jargon with guns — or, at least, very goopy serums — blazin’, and makes a strong point about the markups plaguing the industry. Still, we can’t help but feel a pang of sadness over knowing we’ll never actually be able to buy The Ordinary Toilet Paper, no matter the cost.
