Guided by the belief that “Truth should be Ordinary,” the Deciem-owned skin care brand The Ordinary firmly thinks that customers should know exactly what they are buying — whether that means understanding the science behind the formulas or recognizing the real cost of the marketing tactics other beauty brands employ to appeal to customers.
With education and transparency at its core, The Ordinary continues its mission to provide honest facts: About its products, about the industry. Just recently, the brand teamed up with Uncommon Creative Studio for an initiative that exposes the tricks and fancy words used by beauty players that, unfortunately, keep consumers trapped in an endless loop of hope. To show just how misleading some claims can be, the brand reimagined Mendeleev’s iconic periodic table, replacing the scientific elements with marketing terms consumers are bombarded with across ads, packaging, or store shelves.
Titled The Periodic Fable™, the system includes 49 elements, built “with zero science, filled with problematic terms and the truth behind them.” The idea behind the project is to make consumers more aware of beauty buzzwords and how brands use them to manipulate consumers’ choices. Embracing a pseudo-scientific look, the table is developed to ring alarm bells about empty promises, impossible standards, and overrated ingredients. “We hope it will help create a better, more transparent industry, where everyone can tell fact from fiction. And science from story,” the brand says.
Available at the brand’s webpage, The Periodic Fable™ invites users to explore the misleading world the industry has shaped over time. Complementing the experience is a short video, directed by Olivia De Camps and produced by Smuggler, transporting viewers to a dystopian, cult-like world. Here, a group of hypnotized people chant beauty buzzwords and perform skincare routines almost ritualistically, faithfully following the latest trends the industry sets.
The campaign is set to run across outdoor, social, and influencer platforms in the U.K., U.S., and Canada. Nils Leonard, Co-founder of Uncommon, describes The Periodic Fable™ as “a truth serum the beauty industry has been avoiding for decades,” while Amy Bi, The Ordinary’s VP of Brand, calls the initiative a way to help consumers “know what they’re purchasing — and what words are ultimately just marketing tactics.”
CREDITS
Brand: The Ordinary
Agency: Uncommon Creative Studio
Director: Olivia De Camps
Production Company: Smuggler
