Key takeaways:
- Campaigners are shifting the UPF debate beyond ingredients, arguing that packaging, branding, influencers and digital promotions play a significant role in shaping children’s food preferences.
- Julie Chapon, CEO of Yuka, claims many modern food marketing tactics borrow from the same principles once used by the tobacco industry to build lifelong brand loyalty from an early age.
- As countries such as Chile, Mexico, Peru and Argentina tighten rules on food marketing and labelling, manufacturers could face growing scrutiny over how products are promoted to younger consumers.
The next battle in the ultra-processed foods (UPFs) debate may have little to do with ingredients. Instead, it could centre on how brands market to children.
For years, public health advocates have focused on sugar, salt, fat and additives but a growing number of campaigners now argue that the industry’s most powerful tool isn’t what’s inside the pack but the sophisticated marketing ecosystem surrounding it. From influencers and gaming platforms to colourful packaging, movie tie-ins and licensed characters, critics say food companies are building emotional relationships with children long before they’re old enough to recognise they’re being marketed to.
And while Washington remains stuck on defining UPFs, critics argue that the industry’s marketing playbook is hiding in plain sight. Among the most vocal is Julie Chapon, co-founder and CEO of food-scanning app Yuka. In a new report, the company calls for restrictions on child-focused food advertising, an end to manipulative packaging aimed at children and mandatory front-of-pack labelling.
The tobacco comparison
At the heart of Yuka’s argument is a comparison that many food manufacturers are unlikely to welcome. According to Chapon, children’s marketing relies on two powerful levers: sensory stimulation and emotional attachment.
The first is rooted in product formulation. UPFs are often engineered to deliver highly intense flavours through elevated levels of sweetness, saltiness or fat. According to UNICEF’s 2025 report Feeding Profit, repeated exposure can shape children’s expectations of how food should taste, potentially making simpler foods seem less appealing over time.
The second lever is branding. “Brands do not just sell a product, but an entire world,” says Chapon. ”Mascots, bright colours, cartoon characters, collectible toys: everything is designed to create an emotional connection from an early age.
“The earlier this connection with a brand is formed, the more likely it is to persist into adulthood, making it a powerful tool for long-term customer loyalty.”
Chapon’s comparison points directly to Joe Camel, the cartoon mascot that helped trigger one of the biggest controversies in tobacco advertising.
A landmark 1991 study published in JAMA found that children aged three to six recognised Joe Camel at rates comparable to the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse logo. The findings became a flashpoint in debates over branding, advertising and the influence of marketing on young audiences.
“This tactic was actually inherited from the tobacco industry, which used cartoon mascots to familiarise children with a brand early so that they would naturally turn to those products as adults,” says Chapon.
No one, however, is suggesting that a chocolate bar or doughnut is equivalent to a cigarette. Yet campaigners argue that the underlying principle is similar: establishing emotional brand loyalty before consumers are old enough to critically evaluate marketing messages.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly warned that food marketing influences children’s preferences, purchasing requests and consumption patterns. Increasingly, the question being asked isn’t whether marketing works, but whether certain forms of marketing should be permitted when children are the audience.
From Saturday morning cartoons to TikTok
The challenge for regulators is that children’s marketing doesn’t look like it did 20 years ago.
Today’s children are just as likely to encounter food brands through social media creators, gaming platforms and digital content as they are through traditional advertising.
While cartoon mascots are less prominent than they once were, a brightly coloured cereal box remains a marketing tool. So, too are influencer partnerships, branded challenges, in-game promotions, collectible rewards and entertainment tie-ins.
According to European Commission-backed research, children – particularly younger children – can struggle to recognise when entertainment content carries a commercial message, especially in digital environments where advertising, gaming, influencers and branded content increasingly overlap.
That concern has prompted action in several markets.
Chile became a global pioneer in 2016 when it introduced mandatory front-of-pack warning labels, restricted marketing to children and limited the use of child-focused branding on products high in sugar, sodium, calories or saturated fat. The model has since spread across Latin America, with Peru introducing warning labels in 2019, Mexico in 2020 and Argentina in 2021, creating a regional regulatory experiment that’s now attracting attention from policymakers far beyond the region.
The UK has also tightened restrictions on the promotion and advertising of HFSS foods (high in fat, salt and sugar), reflecting a broader shift towards limiting children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing.
For manufacturers, however, marketing restrictions present a very different challenge from reformulation targets. The food industry has spent years adapting recipes; it’s far less accustomed to regulators scrutinising how brands are built. Reformulation can happen in a factory. Restrictions on branding, packaging and advertising strike much closer to the heart of a business.
A sugar reduction target is one thing but being told how you can package, advertise and promote a product is something else entirely.
Could marketing become the next front in the UPF war?
Few sectors remain untouched. From lunchbox snacks and flavoured milk to soft drinks and sweet baked goods, many categories rely on packaging, promotions and branding to differentiate themselves in crowded markets.
If regulators conclude that certain marketing techniques contribute to excessive consumption of UPFs, brand owners could face growing pressure to rethink how they communicate with younger consumers.
That possibility becomes harder to ignore when the criticism is coming from a platform with significant consumer reach. Yuka, which claims more than 85 million users worldwide, has become one of the most influential food-scanning apps on the market, giving it a level of visibility that many campaign groups can only envy.
The Paris-based company believes front-of-pack labelling should form part of the solution. It advocates mandatory labels that communicate both nutritional quality and the degree of processing, arguing that consumers need a fuller picture when making purchasing decisions. Chapon points to systems such as Nutri-Score in Europe and warning labels in Latin America as examples of how clear information can influence both consumer behaviour and product reformulation.
She’s also calling for stronger restrictions on UPF marketing across television, social media, influencer content, video games, schools and packaging aimed at children.
However, she’s careful not to condemn processing outright. “Processing is not the enemy,” she says. “Freezing, fermenting, pasteurising and canning can make food safer, more affordable, easier to store and more accessible.”
Instead, she draws a distinction between traditional processing methods and what she sees as highly engineered products designed to maximise appeal and encourage repeat consumption.
“The problem is not a can of tomatoes or a bag of frozen vegetables. The problem is the industrial model that turns cheap ingredients into highly engineered products designed for maximum appeal, very long shelf life that encourage overconsumption and displace freshly prepared meals.”
Whether regulators ultimately embrace that argument remains uncertain. The science remains contested, definitions remain elusive and food manufacturers continue to defend the role that processing plays in delivering safe, affordable and convenient products.
Regulators may still be arguing over definitions, but campaigners have already broadened the UPF debate beyond formulation and into marketing.
And for an industry built on the power of brands, that could prove a far more uncomfortable conversation than any debate over definitions.
Studies:
Fischer PM, Schwartz MP, Richards JW, Goldstein AO, Rojas TH. Brand Logo Recognition by Children Aged 3 to 6 Years: Mickey Mouse and Old Joe the Camel. JAMA. 1991;266(22):3145–3148. doi:10.1001/jama.1991.03470220061027
(Manipulative) Digital Marketing Practices Targeted at Children and Youth: Rights and Responsibilities Under the Existing EU Legal Framework (2024) https://euneighbourseast.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/adwiseonline_research-report_manipulative-digital-marketing-practices-targeted-at-children-and-youth.pdf
Taillie LS, Bercholz M, Popkin B, Reyes M, Colchero MA, Corvalán C. Changes in food purchases after the Chilean policies on food labelling, marketing, and sales in schools: a before and after study. Lancet Planet Health. 2021 Aug;5(8):e526-e533. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00172-8. PMID: 34390670; PMCID: PMC8364623.
