TikTok’s ‘dupe’ trend: Explained

Siyah and Malika walked around the Philly H&M together as they held up different products to the camera.

“Alexander Wang doop,” one friend would say while holding up an inexpensive, sequined shoulder bag as the other recorded.

“Timbs doooooop,” she said later, holding up a pair of infant boots that loosely resembled Timberlands.

The satirical exchange is one example of a trend that has taken over TikTok for You Pages over the last month. We’re talking about dupe videos, in which you will likely see a pair of young people running around a store yelling “[product name] DOOP” at the top of their lungs. I don’t make the rules, I’m just here to explain them.

Here’s what you need to know.

Dupe or “doop” parody videos are meant to mock dupe marketing — a concept used to promote and sell copycat versions of luxury items.

In the beauty sphere, “dupe” — short for duplicate — is online slang that rose in the 2000s to talk about cheaper, often drugstore versions of luxury cosmetics. According to Know Your Meme, the oldest known YouTube video using the phrase “dupe” was posted in 2008.

Consumers rely on posts about dupes to find inexpensive versions of brands and specific products. From lululemon and SKIMS dupes on Amazon to a Trader Joe’s version of Brazilian Bum Bum Cream that customers call an affordable copycat, search data reveal a consumer fixation on dupes.

As noted by Know Your Meme, a Think With Google consumer trends report revealed searches for “dupe” increased by more than 40% every year in the 2010s. Google Trends show that searches for “dupe” continue to rise. This week, trend data show “dupe” searches were accompanied by search terms including Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter (an expensive and often sold-out concealer), as well as Birkenstock sandals, and Ugg micro boots.

But now dupe videos have a new, mocking tone.

In a December TikTok that continues to trend, TikTok user @keylimeleah posted a video walking through Target, mocking dupe content.

“Run, don’t walk — Hoka dupes,” she said while holding up a Target brand athletic sneaker. “Is this a cigarette dupe?” her friend Georgia said, laughing, as she held up a box of Nicorette gum. The lighthearted video, which pokes fun at influencer culture, has since garnered more than 847,000 views.

Since then, other content creators hopped onto the trend, posting silly dupe videos that are purposefully outlandish (i.e: “Lamborghini doop” while gesturing toward a toy car).

Each post typically drags out the “-oop” in “dooooooop,” emphasizing it more each time, to the point that the word “dupe” is starting to lose all meaning.

Critics warn that the trend is annoying as well as a potential microaggression toward groups who cannot afford name or luxury brands.

“As someone who grew up poor, i’m a little ... bitter that finding ‘dupes’ of expensive things is … trendy now,” one user commented on Twitter. “I got bullied/made fun of in school for having knockoffs and now people will flex their ‘dupe’ for an expensive clothing item or accessory on TikTok.”

Still, young people posting the videos say they’re not meant to be taken seriously.

TikToker @kelseylmao’s dupe video with a friend features a “Bath and Bodyworks dupe,” a.k.a. a scented candle as well as an “antidepressant dupe” — a Mike’s Hard Lemonade six-pack. The video was posted on Jan. 3 and soared to more than 900,000 plays and 180,000 likes in about two weeks.

If Google trends are any indicator, the videos are here to stay — at least until the next annoying-but-charming trend takes hold.