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The Ordinary turns beauty marketing into a luxury supermarket parody

The Ordinary, The Markup Marché campaign, Global

Global – The Ordinary is running The Markup Marché, pop-ups designed to expose the pricing psychology and pseudoscientific language often used in beauty marketing. Created with Uncommon Creative Studio, the activation features everyday grocery items labelled with exaggerated luxury branding and inflated prices.

According to data cited by the brand, 20% of UK consumers would pay up to £20 (€23, $27) 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.

Those dynamics are satirised at the pop-ups through interactive features including a ‘naming department’ generating overblown ingredient labels and a ‘jargon bar’ applying skincare buzzwords to juices and drinks. The pop-ups are being held during May in Paris, Toronto, London, Melbourne, São Paulo and Mexico City.

This campaign reflects growing consumer scepticism towards inflated branding, celebrity-led marketing and wellness pseudoscience. It aligns with insights from our flagship macrotrend New Codes of Value which explores the values reshaping consumer expectations and reveals why transparency, resourcefulness, care, enoughness and emotional relevance are becoming increasingly important to brand trust and loyalty.

Strategic opportunity

As consumers grow more sceptical of inflated branding and pseudoscientific claims, brands have an opportunity to build trust through radical transparency, clearer language and visible value – making honesty feel premium

Foresight Friday: Seyi Oduwole, foresight analyst

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals everyone’s talking about. This week, foresight analyst Seyi Oduwole explores the rise of water status symbols, wearable wellness and DIY pharmaceuticals.

: What we forecasted back in 2024 through our Functional Feasting macrotrend is accelerating. A new entrant, im Water, is tapping into the growing premiumisation of hydration with a bottle designed for both utility and visibility. Its label doubles as a long, stretchy strap: simply peel from the corner and it transforms into a cross-body carrier, turning hydration into a wearable accessory. Watch out for the next performative male accessory…

: In a similar vein Loonen is the latest luxe water to hit the market. With ‘All of the minerals, none of the chemicals’, it has become almost impossible to escape online, with influencers flooding my feed with comparative taste tests.

This forms part of a wider shift I’m calling wearable wellness – the meeting of health optimisation with identity and status signalling.

Last year, supplement brand Lemme tapped into this space with the launch of its charm-style necklace designed to hold a gummy or two on the go. Positioned somewhere between wellness product and branded merchandise, it turned supplementation into a fashion accessory.

Cycle.me, Japan

As consumers increasingly seek products that visibly communicate their lifestyles and values, wellness is becoming something to wear, display and share. Read our Liquid Intentions report to learn more.

: Elsewhere in health culture, DIY drugs are gaining traction. People are increasingly taking healthcare into their own hands, experimenting with self-made prescription-drug combinations and so-called ‘panic pouches’ designed to reduce anxiety in high-stress situations (source: New York Post).

From personalised supplement stacks to crowdsourced biohacking advice, consumers are moving away from passive healthcare models and towards self-directed experimentation, becoming their very own lab rats and testing themselves in real time.

Quote of the week

‘Hedonism is important, but I think people are looking for something more intentional right now. I think we’re entering an era that’s less about losing yourself and more about finding yourself’

James Massiah, author and poet (source: Dazed)

Stat: Why Gen Z are increasingly experiencing ‘psychic moments’

AI imagery by The Future Laboratory, UK

US – Nearly one in five Americans believe they are psychic, according to new research exploring the growing role of intuition in everyday decision-making.

The survey of 2,000 adults who have access to the internet found that 19% consider themselves psychic, while 71% rely on intuition at least sometimes, signalling a broader cultural shift toward emotional self-trust and instinct-led behaviour.

Respondents reported experiencing an average of 18 ‘psychic moments’ over the past year, with Gen Z emerging as the most intuition-oriented generation: 30% said they believe they are psychic, experiencing intuitive moments twice per month – double the rate of Baby Boomers.

The findings suggest intuition is becoming increasingly embedded within modern identity and wellbeing culture, with 33% of respondents saying they could instinctively sense when something felt ‘off’ and 28% trusting their ability to detect dishonesty.

However, respondents also revealed uncertainty about their internal judgement in digitally saturated environments. Almost half said technology (47%), social media (46%) and AI (43%) have negatively impacted trust in their intuition, while 35% admitted they struggle to distinguish genuine instinct from anxiety.

In our Future Five 2026 report, we highlight how people’s search for meaning is resulting in a new era of religious curiosity, where ancient teachings and traditions get a modern update.

Strategic opportunity

As consumers seek greater trust in their own judgement, consider how your brand could create calmer interfaces, slower interactions and emotionally reassuring pathways that reduce cognitive overload