You’ve probably heard a lot about alternative medicine and brushed it off, happily booking your next visit to your doctor. Still, there are many who make millions off it now, including Gwyneth Paltrow – the successful actress that we currently adore in the Marvel movies. Her wellness brand Goop took the world by storm during the late 2010s, and she’s not planning to stop any time soon.
How Goop Started
Back in 2008, Goop started as a weekly email newsletter for luxury wellness products that Paltrow recommended to her readers. At the time, the actress described it more as a “blog.”
From there, a Goop website opened with articles and guides. Not long after, a store came online. Today, Goop has grown into a massive wellness and health platform that brings alternative medicine skin care, beauty, healthy eating, and more products to the masses. As you may have guessed, it sells many of these products directly through their store.
Over time, brands started trending because of their appearance on the platform; treatments became popular when they popped up on the website. Even $66 jade eggs sold out after the actress called it the “best treatment” for hormonal balance.
Rise In Popularity
In case you’re wondering how Goop continues to grow every year, it’s largely due to its recent “In Goop Health” wellness summits. The company’s held five conferences, in locations like Los Angeles, New York, and Vancouver, charging anywhere between $1,200 to $5,500 for tickets. Yes, you read that right.
Despite the costly tickets, over 600 men and women attended the last conference. Tickets include free gifts like Paltrow’s branded diet supplements and self-care products, shoes, training, masterclasses, an open-air lounge for naps, healthy snacks and meals, and more.
However, for Goop lovers, it’s more than the products that get them to read the website and attend the conference; it’s also the friendly, we’re-all-family feeling Paltrow creates. For fans, the fact that she visits her own conference shows her dedication. She’s become an idol to them.
Difference Of Opinion
Goop is not without its detractors, though. As with the majority of alternative medicine methods, both scientists and users have complaints with Paltrow’s wellness brand. First, a buyer sued the company for false advertising regarding the previously discussed jade eggs. In the end, that lawsuit cost them $145,000. Still, it didn’t end there. Their non-scientifically-based claims caused them to part ways with the mass media company Condé Nast.
Meanwhile, while the website itself says that they “curate what’s special out there, from fashion buys to restaurants picks to non-toxic beauty, in hopes of helping you save a little time and make a great discovery,” scientists have a different opinion about what Paltrow’s business truly is about.
Timothy Caulfield, a professor of health law and policy at the University of Alberta, openly criticizes Goop and other celebrity “wellness,” alternative medicine brands. He tells others that “they are pushing an ethos built on pseudoscience.” Moreover, “these kind of conferences legitimize magical thinking,” Caulfield states about the “In Goop Health” summits. In short, famous folk endorsing this pseudoscience only makes it more believable for the listener.
In response, the company worked on a “Science & Regulatory Wellness” team, which vets “ingredients and claims for every ingestible product that [they] sell on goop.” However, Goop has established no hard timeline for team development.
Goop: Not Going Anywhere
Despite what others say, don’t expect the company to go anywhere anytime soon. No matter what experts may say, many fans and believers continue to support the brand. It doubled sales in 2016 and 2017, before tripling them in 2018. Today, the company is worth over $250 million.
We’ll have to wait and see what’s next for Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop, but expect them to be around for a long time.