What is going on with The Ordinary's Instagram? A lot, apparently. Brandon Truaxe, the founder of “the abnormal beauty company” Deciem (which you may be familiar with through their affordable skincare brand The Ordinary), has taken over the company’s Instagram account and turned it into a total mess.
Let’s back up - here’s how the Brandon Truaxe Instagram drama started. In January 2018, Truaxe decided he wanted to interact with Deciem’s Instagram followers himself instead of letting his social media team handle things. Deciem’s feed devolved into pictures of dead animals and garbage posted alongside rambling, overly personal videos of Truaxe himself. Customers were not feeling it, and even went so far as to light their The Ordinary makeup on fire!
Scroll through to discover the most shocking and upsetting things Truaxe has said on The Ordinary's Instagram. Will you still follow the beauty brand, or has Truaxe scared you off, too?
On January 24, 2018, followers of beauty company Deciem saw an unfamiliar face on their Instagram feed: Brandon Truaxe, the founder of Deciem (and their better-known brand, The Ordinary). Truaxe announced he was suspending all of Deciem's marketing efforts and plans - and taking over the company Instagram feed himself - in order to connect with followers as "fellow humans" instead of "consumers."
He even urged customers to stop commenting on his video with questions about their orders because, "Our social team won't respond to any comments on this post because I will respond to all of them personally. Please ask any order or product questions on another post or via DM so that I can commit time to this post." So, not the most customer-friendly approach.
By The End Of Truaxe's Instagram Takeover, Fans Were Burning Their Deciem Products
Fans were not into Truaxe's crazy Instagram takeover. After the founder butchered Deciem's feed with pictures of garbage, weird videos of himself, oddly personal call-outs and apologies, and rude comments to customers, former followers of "The Abnormal Beauty Company" decided to literally set their Deciem products on fire! Many took to Instagram Stories to show how they were burning their serums and moisturizers, while some fans took the easy way out and threw their Ordinary stash into the trash.
His intentions may have been good, but when Truaxe flooded his followers' feeds with images of dead animals and garbage, the response was overwhelmingly negative.
First, Truaxe posted a graphic image of what appears to be a discarded sheepskin with the caption, "Stop being mean to kind animals. DECIEM will never test on animals. EVER NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS."
Then, the garbage pictures started. Truaxe posted a series of seven images of discarded waste in nature and vowed to eliminate all plastic from Deciem's packaging. He even took the opportunity to apologize to the company's plastic supplier, saying, "Peter of Mong Packaging, I'm sorry that we won't use plastic any more. You're such a good person. I'll sponsor you and your family to come to Canada if you want and you can work at DECIEM."
While his commitment to eliminating waste is admirable, the way he went about it is certifiably insane.
Truaxe has always had a mean streak, apparently. At one point, he called out Drunk Elephant, a competitor in the skincare category, saying that customers would "have to be drunk" to pay what DE was charging for their cult-favorite Marula Oil.
But on his Instagram spree, Truaxe actually apologized for that comment - and more than that, he donated $25,000 to Drunk Elephant's charity of choice. Um, what? He explained, "I once wrote that one would have to be drunk to overpay for Marula oil which was a distasteful joke that arose from my familiarity with the beautiful brand, @drunkelephantskincare. @tiffanymasterson: I'm sorry. When I met you at the WWD breakfast, I saw a beautiful soul. And you have worked hard to build a beautiful brand. Please forgive me. I have now adjusted that distasteful post and we will donate $25,000 to the peaceful elephant charity that your brand supports: @savetheelephants."
He Posted Weirdly Personal Content – And Called Employees And Partners Out By Name
In a now-deleted post, Truaxe pleaded, "FORGIVE ME," and proceeded to tell one of his business partners, TJ Esho, that his product line with Deciem was over. Yes, via Instagram. The post asked Esho to forgive him and outlined the details of their business deal. Somehow, this still isn't the most unprofessional thing Truaxe has posted!
He also gets oddly personal in the captions of his photos. For example, he felt the need to clarify, "Riad is not my boyfriend (I'm not gay). He's my brother and I love him (and his beautiful mother who's my mother)" on a photo of the Deciem factory manager, Riad.
Truaxe Got Nasty With Customers In The Comments
Truaxe's antics didn't stop at his crazy-long captions - he took the drama into the comments section, too. At first, the founder claimed he wanted to talk to his followers like "humans" and not "consumers," but within a few posts, he was treating his followers like literal garbage.
One customer tried to alert the brand's parent company, Estee Lauder, to the craziness that was happening, commenting "@esteelauder you should seriously stop this before it spirals. Not to mention he took 500k of your investment and handed it to his family and taking a trip around the world. Racist & a flake."
Truaxe fired back with, "@heatheleemtl bye bye. You don't know which companies to tag and you don't realize they don't control our company. And they won't agree with your stupid post."
He then proceeded to tag @esteelaudercompanies and call Deciem commenters "miserable people." Wonder how the beauty giant is going to feel about that...
