Think of the last time a child begged a parent for a product they had seen advertised on television. The child could not explain the ingredients or the nutritional value, but they knew they wanted it. They knew the jingle, and they knew the cartoon character. They knew it was supposed to make them stronger, smarter, taller. This is not a coincidence. It is the intended outcome of decades of psychologically sophisticated food marketing, and it works. The question worth asking is not whether food advertising influences behaviour; the evidence on that is clear. But how it works inside the mind, and what it costs us to remain unaware of it.
The Psychology Behind the Advertisement: Conditioning and Emotional Priming
Food advertising does not primarily operate through information. It operates through emotion. Advertisers have long understood that creating positive emotional associations with a product is far more effective than communicating facts about it. This is the principle of emotional priming in the use of joyful imagery, beloved characters, upbeat music, and aspirational narratives to trigger automatic positive responses to a brand. It often before any conscious evaluation takes place (Harris et al., 2009).
This process is rooted in classical conditioning. Just as Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate a bell with food, consumers, particularly children, learn to associate specific products with feelings of happiness, belonging, achievement, and safety. Research has demonstrated that food advertising primes automatic eating behaviours, influencing far more than brand preference alone (Harris et al., 2009).
In one experimental study, children consumed 45% more food when exposed to food advertising, and adults consumed more of both healthy and unhealthy snack foods following exposure to snack food advertising, with these effects operating independently of reported hunger or other conscious influences (Harris et al., 2009). Automatic processes that influence consumer decision-making are highly effective, and emotional marketing that occurs under low involvement conditions may increase the effectiveness of persuasion (Harris, Brownell, & Bargh, 2009).
Read More: How Swiggy & Zomato Know Exactly When You’re Hungry
The Female Appeal: Mothers, Children, and Emotional Advertising
Emotional stories that focus on mothers and children are one of the most emotionally compelling techniques that food advertisers use. Products such as Bournvita, Horlicks, and various breakfast cereals always have a recognisable mother making a breakfast for her child, a clearly flourishing child excelling at school or sport and the implicit meaning that the correct product is a show of love and good parenting. This method is aimed at two psychological weaknesses at the same time: the need of the child to have fun, get a reward, and be energised, and the strong commitment of the parent to the health and growth of the child (Cairns et al., 2013).
Research confirms that marketing features appealing to parents, including health claims, images of healthy ingredients, and depictions of happy family life, significantly influence purchase intentions, even when parents are consciously wary of advertising (Chung et al., 2024). The emotional architecture of these advertisements is not accidental. It is designed to make a purchase feel like an expression of care rather than a commercial transaction. When the product later turns out to be high in sugar or refined ingredients, the resulting betrayal is not merely informational. It is personal and emotional.
The Effect on the Development of Children
The psychological effects of daily exposure to food advertisements among children are well-documented. Children are a particularly vulnerable audience since their critical thinking capabilities are still in the process of developing, and thus they are less likely to perceive persuasion or assess health claims on their own (Harris, Brownell, and Bargh, 2009). It has been found that children exposed to food advertising many times develop strong emotional responses to brands even prior to the age of sufficient critical assessment of nutritional information, and that these responses directly correlate with consumption behaviour (Sadeghirad et al., 2016).
Advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages has been identified as a risk factor for childhood obesity and noncommunicable diseases (Boyland et al., 2019). In addition to physical health, internalisation of advertising messages influences the attitudes of children towards what makes a healthy, capable or successful individual- connecting these qualities to particular branded products and not necessarily to true nutrition decisions.
When the Label Lies: Bournvita, Parle-G, and the Breakfast Cereal Myth
The discrepancy between the promise of advertising and the nutritional reality is apparent in various categories of products in India and other parts of the world. Bournvita, a product of Mondelez International, has long positioned itself as a scientifically formulated beverage that promotes the growth, immunity and school performance of children. In April 2023, YouTuber Revant Himatsingka (FoodPharmer) published a video in which he pointed out that the drink contains nearly half a sugar, which garnered the video nearly 12 million views before Mondelez sent a legal notice.
The National Commission on Protection of Child Rights then instructed the recall of all deceptive packaging and advertising, and the representatives of Mondelez themselves testified before the commission that Bournvita is not a health drink. Eventually, the sugar content of the product was dropped by 15 per cent (Press Trust of India, 2023).
A similar case is presented by Parle-G. The biscuit has been marketed under the slogan G for Genius and has always been linked with energy and intelligence, especially in children. However, in 2024, a case was filed against advertisements of Parle-G Royale biscuits that supposedly misled about their sugar content (Storyboard18, 2025). The G of the brand name is actually glucose, but the product contains sugar instead of glucose, and includes large amounts of refined wheat flour, which casts doubt on the accuracy of its health positioning.
The best-known example of healthwashing is probably the case of the breakfast cereal category. Kellogg’s cornflakes has been marketed as a healthy breakfast and an energising one since the early twentieth century. Nonetheless, the UK Advertising Standards Authority decided that the advertisement by Kellogg’s claiming that children who ate Cornflakes were 9% more alert was misleading because the study compared children who ate the cereal to children who did not eat breakfast, and not to children who ate other breakfast foods (Bakery and Snacks, 2006). The well-crafted persona of the cornflakes as a healthy beginning of the day has remained in the minds of consumers even after it has been proven through regulatory hurdles to be unscientific.
Read More: Food and Feelings: How Diet Influences Stress, Anxiety, and Mood in Growing Children
The Role of Social Media Influencers: Disrupting the Illusion
The Bournvita controversy also illustrated a relatively new dynamic in food advertising’s psychological landscape. The role of social media influencers in both perpetuating and challenging health claims. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to celebrity endorsements, music sponsorships, and influencer-based marketing of potentially unhealthy food products, leading to high levels of engagement and trust towards many brands (Qutteina et al., 2019).
The same platforms that enable manipulative marketing have also given voice to critical counter-narratives. However, for many viewers, the revelation produces not immediate behaviour change but a state of false hope. A belief that awareness alone is sufficient, even as the structural conditions that enable misleading marketing largely remain in place.
Read More: Ultra-Processed Foods and Executive Function: How Diet Impacts Brain Health
The Lasting Mental Architecture of Advertising
The deepest psychological impact of food advertising is not on any single purchase decision. It is on the mental architecture through which food, health, and identity become entangled in the consumer’s mind. Children absorb positive emotional priming about commercial, ultra-processed foods before they have even started school, rapidly become experts about it, are surrounded by it throughout their childhoods, and respond positively to it during adolescence (Boyland et al., 2019). By the time a person is old enough to critically evaluate a health claim. The emotional association has already been laid down and repeatedly reinforced.
To dismantle this architecture, we need more than YouTube videos or new labels. It requires a rethink of media education and regulations that ensure advertisers are accountable for their health claims. A change of mindset to critically interpret the narratives that food advertisements create of health, ability, and nutrition.
References +
Bakery and Snacks. (2006, August 24). Kellogg’s criticised over misleading advert. https://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/Article/2006/08/24/Kelloggs-criticised-over-misleading-advert/
Boyland, E. J., Rossiter, S., & Whalen, R. (2019). Food marketing influences children’s attitudes, preferences and consumption: A systematic critical review. Nutrients, 11(4), 875. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11040875
Cairns, G., Angus, K., Hastings, G., & Caraher, M. (2013). Systematic reviews of the evidence on the nature, extent and effects of food marketing to children: A retrospective summary. Appetite, 62, 209–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2012.04.017
Chung, A., Hatzikiriakidis, K., Martino, F., & Skouteris, H. (2024). Characterising parent-appeal marketing on foods for children: A scoping review. Current Nutrition Reports, 13(3), 393–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-024-00559-3
Harris, J. L., Bargh, J. A., & Brownell, K. D. (2009). Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behaviour. Health Psychology, 28(4), 404–413. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014399
Harris, J. L., Brownell, K. D., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The food marketing defence model: Integrating psychological research to protect youth and inform public policy. Social Issues and Policy Review, 3(1), 211–271. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2009.01015.x
Press Trust of India. (2023, April 26). Bournvita row: Child rights body tells health drink brand to remove misleading ads. The Week. https://www.theweek.in/news/biz-tech/2023/04/26/bournvita-row-child-rights-body-tells-health-drink-brand-to-remove-misleading-ads.html
Qutteina, Y., De Backer, C., & Smits, T. (2019). Media food marketing and eating outcomes among pre-adolescents and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews, 20(12), 1708–1719. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12929
Sadeghirad, B., Duhaney, T., Motaghipisheh, S., Campbell, N. R. C., & Johnston, B. C. (2016). Influence of unhealthy food and beverage marketing on children’s dietary intake and preference: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials. Obesity Reviews, 17(10), 945–959. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12445
Storyboard18. (2025, March 4). Bitter truth behind food ads: Will stricter regulations finally hold brands accountable? https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/bitter-truth-behind-food-ads-will-stricter-regulations-finally-hold-brands-accountable-58142.htm
World Health Organisation. (2010). Set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. WHO Press.
