The beauty industry sells words. “Age-defying”. “Miracle”. “Superfood-infused”. Nobody knows what they mean, but everybody buys. In 2025 and 2026, three brands decided to go against it, each in their own way. The Ordinary showed the emperor has no clothes. Vaseline turned TikTok hacks into real products. And Specsavers sold a hearing aid as if it were an intimate accessory.
All three won gold or a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2026. All three grew sales, and proved that honesty is better marketing than a beautiful lie.
1. The Ordinary: 49 Empty Words
Background
The Ordinary is a Canadian skincare brand whose entire business model is built on transparency. Products cost under 10 dollars, ingredients are listed on the packaging, and the marketing uses no magical promises. The brand’s revenue is around 468 million dollars a year, and among Gen Z it ranks sixth in the world for cultural impact.
The beauty industry is full of words that sound scientific but mean nothing. “Medical grade” is not a medical term. “Detox” is not a scientific concept in skincare. “Poreless” is physically impossible. But those words sell, because people believe them.
Campaign Description
The Ordinary made “The Periodic Fable”. They took the periodic table from chemistry and replaced the elements with 49 beauty industry words that have no scientific basis. Each word got its own “element” position in the table, and on the website you could click each one to read why it means nothing.
The campaign film was directed by Olivia De Camps (Smuggler, London). In it, students sit in a dystopian classroom repeating the industry’s miracle words in a trance. They perform viral skincare rituals on their faces, exfoliating, stretching, freezing. One of them wakes from the trance and sees the truth. 60 seconds that made viewers ask what is actually written on their own jars.
The campaign went further. In May 2026 The Ordinary opened “The Markup Marche” pop-up shops in several cities, where ordinary food items got beauty industry names and prices. A banana was an “All-Natural Magical Energy-Boosting Bar” at 175.90 dollars. A coconut was an “Exotic Thirst Defying Hydration Vessel” at 195.50 dollars. At the till, buyers received The Ordinary products instead of a banana.
Results
Engagement grew 4.6 times. New followers came in at 5 times the usual rate. Impressions grew 4 times and web traffic 11.8 times. Over 80 pieces of coverage in top publications. The agency Uncommon Creative Studio took its first UK Grand Prix.
Cannes Lions 2026: Health & Wellness Grand Prix.
2. Vaseline: TikTok Hacks Became Real Products
Background
Vaseline was in an odd position. There were over 6,000 organic posts on TikTok of people using Vaseline in every imaginable hack: taming eyebrows, as a face primer, for plumper lips, for treating scars. Some of the hacks worked. Some were dangerous, and nobody was checking.
In 2025 Vaseline took a first step with the campaign “Vaseline Verified”, lab-testing all the hacks and giving the ones that worked a “Verified” mark. It won a Titanium Lion and 2 Grand Prix at Cannes 2025. But Vaseline was not satisfied with that.
Campaign Description
In 2026 came “Vaseline Originals”. Vaseline found the two people who had invented these hacks first, back in 2008, long before TikTok. Jen Chae had used Vaseline as an eyebrow tamer. Lauren Luke had used it as a primer. Both were first-generation YouTube beauty bloggers.
Vaseline turned their hacks into real products. Jen Chae’s hack became Vaseline Originals Brow Tamer Jelly. Lauren Luke’s became Vaseline Originals All-In-One Primer & Highlighter Jelly. Both creators’ faces and stories were on the packaging. And for the first time ever, the creators received a share of every product sold. Not a sponsorship fee, an actual percentage of sales.
Ogilvy Singapore launched the products on TikTok Shop with a live event on 30 March 2026, starting in Thailand, then Singapore and the Philippines.
Results
The products sold out in minutes. Sales were 466% higher than classic Vaseline. At peak, one product sold every two seconds. Organic hack posts grew a further 24%. E-commerce sales grew 43%.
Vaseline collected 20 Lions at Cannes Lions 2026, 6 of them from the Originals campaign, including Gold in Social & Creator. Across two years the Vaseline campaign platform has gathered over 29 Lions.
3. Specsavers: A Hearing Aid as an Intimate Accessory
Background
18 million Britons hear poorly. The average person waits up to 10 years before seeking help with hearing loss. Why? Because a hearing aid is embarrassing. It is a marker of age. Something you do not want.
Specsavers has worked on this problem three years running. In 2023 Rick Astley re-recorded his hit with misheard lyrics (“The Misheard Version”) and hearing test bookings grew 1,220%. In 2024 they took Creative Effectiveness Gold at Cannes. Denial of hearing loss fell from 10% to 5% over three years.
Campaign Description
Golin London, now Golin Ketchum, did something unexpected for Valentine’s Day. On 9 February 2026, relationship expert Paul C Brunson, presenter of “Married at First Sight”, posted an Instagram video praising a new “intimacy aid” that brings couples closer than ever before. He described it as an “AI-powered device that heightens the senses”, “discreet and designed to be used anywhere”.
Two days later came the reveal: the “intimate accessory” was the Specsavers Advance 65 hearing aid. The film was deliberately styled like an adult products advertisement. Soft lighting, a suggestive voice, a promise that your relationship will change. And then it turns out you simply hear your partner better.
Specsavers ran an in-store campaign where couples could get their hearing checked together. The message: do not just get two ears checked, get four.
Results
Hearing aid sales grew 69%. Stigma around hearing loss fell 41%. Brunson’s Instagram teaser got 1.2 million views, the film 1.56 million on YouTube, and earned media 17 million views. 97% of the response was positive.
Cannes Lions 2026: PR Gold and PR Silver. A third consecutive year of Gold or higher at Cannes.
Strategy: What the Three Have in Common
Truth is a marketing strategy. The Ordinary said outright that the beauty industry’s words are empty. Vaseline said outright that the best hacks come from customers, not the lab. Specsavers said a hearing aid is sexy if you think about what it actually does. All three used truth as a marketing instrument.
Attack your own category. The Ordinary did not attack a competitor. They attacked the entire beauty industry. That is bold, because they are part of that industry themselves. But since their business model is built on transparency, products under 10 dollars and ingredients clearly listed, they had the right to attack. Vaseline attacked the notion that the brand must be the source of innovation, admitting customers thought of the better ideas. Specsavers attacked the idea that a hearing aid is something shameful.
One idea, several years. Vaseline’s “Verified” and “Originals” are two years on the same platform, over 29 Lions across them. Specsavers’ hearing campaigns have been awarded at Cannes three years running. The Ordinary is building on its “The Truth Should Be Ordinary” platform. None of them made a one-off campaign. All built long-term platforms that produce a new output every year.
Criticism
The Ordinary attacks an industry it belongs to. A company with 468 million dollars in revenue tells others they are lying. The Ordinary can do that because its products are under 10 dollars and the ingredients are listed. But they belong to Estée Lauder, which also sells brands carrying those same miracle words on the packaging. Is the parent-and-subsidiary contradiction a deliberate strategy or an awkward detail?
Vaseline paid the creators, but how much? Vaseline emphasised that Jen Chae and Lauren Luke get a share of every sale. That is better than an ordinary sponsorship deal. But the percentage was not published. If it is 1%, it is symbolic. If it is 10%, it is revolutionary. Without the number it is hard to judge whether this is partnership or attractive marketing.
Specsavers plays with stigma. Marketing a hearing aid as an “intimate accessory” is brilliant, because it breaks the stigma. But it only works because hearing loss IS embarrassing. The campaign uses shame in order to reduce it. That is effective marketing, but a question remains: is a few weeks’ reduction in stigma lasting, or does it slide back?
Lessons Learned
1. Attack your category’s rules, not a competitor. The Ordinary did not say L’Oréal is bad. They said the entire industry’s language is false. That is a stronger position, because you are not at war with one brand. You are changing the rules of the game. And when the rules change, the advantage belongs to whoever rewrote them first.
2. The customer is a better product developer than the lab. Vaseline’s two most successful products, at 466% higher sales, came from TikTok users who had invented the hack back in 2008. Vaseline turned them into real products. The question for every brand: what are your customers already doing with your product that you do not know about?
3. Change the category, not the product. Specsavers did not change the hearing aid. They changed the category it belongs to. Instead of a medical device it is now a relationship tool. Same product, completely different emotion.
4. A one-year campaign is a wasted opportunity. Vaseline built a 29-Lion platform over two years (Verified to Originals). Specsavers built a series of hearing campaigns over three years (Misheard Version to Misheard Manifesto to Relationship Aid). Stigma fell 50% over three years. None of those results would have come from a single year’s campaign. A platform you keep building on is stronger than a new story every year.
5. You do not get 466% sales growth from polished advertising. Vaseline’s Originals sold out in minutes because there was an honest story behind it: real people who invented the hack, and a brand that gave them credit and money. The Ordinary’s web traffic grew 11.8 times because they said out loud what everyone was thinking. Specsavers’ sales grew 69% because they put a hearing aid in a context nobody had seen it in before. A polished ad does none of those things.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Ordinary’s Periodic Fable campaign?
A periodic table in which the chemical elements are replaced by 49 beauty industry marketing words with no scientific basis, such as “medical grade”, “detox”, and “poreless”, each clickable on the website to explain why it means nothing.
What is Vaseline Originals?
Two real products built from TikTok hacks, credited to the creators who invented them in 2008, Jen Chae and Lauren Luke, whose faces appear on the packaging and who receive a share of every sale rather than a sponsorship fee.
Why did Specsavers market a hearing aid like an adult product?
To break the stigma. The average person waits up to 10 years before seeking help with hearing loss because a hearing aid reads as a marker of age. Reframing it as a relationship tool cut stigma 41% and grew sales 69%.
Does honesty actually sell in beauty?
On this evidence yes, when the product supports it. The Ordinary grew web traffic 11.8 times, Vaseline’s Originals sold 466% above baseline, Specsavers grew hearing aid sales 69%. All three had products that could survive the scrutiny they invited.
Related Reading on Shopping Scientists
- Dove “Real Beauty” – the twenty-year version of the same argument, and its contradictions.
- Three Brands That Turned a Problem into Their Best Campaign – including Dove’s unfiltered Reddit reviews.
- The Most Powerful Thing in Marketing Comes from the Pharmacy – what belief does to a product.
