The Silent Takeover: How Junk Food Marketing Reaches Children
How Big Food Got Away with It
This is not a story of a bank being robbed; the villains instead are ultra-processed food companies, and what they’re stealing is health and policy action. Some countries saw it coming and locked the vault, while others caved in and left the door wide open.
Scene 1
There were no masks. No glass breaking. Just a food industry document leaked to the market that read, “There’s more profit in selling engineered food than saving lives.”
Big Food wasn’t planning a robbery but a complete takeover of the market.
Their objective? To infiltrate every aspect of our children's lives with junk food. With a surprising $2 billion spent annually on junk food advertising targeting children.
Scene 2
Sneaky marketing of ultra-processed food infiltrated the market: cereal boxes with smiling tigers. Energy drink ads in between kids’ shows or a free toy with every Happy Meal.
No one noticed at first, not really! Ultra-processed foods slipped in quietly. Easy, tasty, and much more affordable.
UPFs have become a staple in many diets due to their convenience and aggressive marketing. However, their consumption is associated with numerous health risks.
So, what happens next?
Scene 3
In any good heist, you need someone on the inside. For Big Food, that someone has often been... government.
Big Food companies were able to successfully lobby governments around the world to drop legal charges against marketing restrictions on their products. These large corporations always find and exploit loopholes.
Scene 4
Did any country do anything about it?
In 2016, Chile implemented a groundbreaking food labeling and advertising law, mandating warning labels on foods high in sugar, salt, or saturated fat, and restricting their sale in schools and advertising to children.
The vault closes.
However, not all countries have followed suit. In the UK, proposed health initiatives promoting discounts on minimally processed foods were reportedly dropped after lobbying from major food industry players!
“Ta ذغ iya” by Sarah Zahr
Closing Scene
Are we writing the next act of this story or just watching it unfold? Because if its the latter, its no fiction. Its real and Big Food companies are getting away with it.
We know by now their playbook: Distract, delay, deny, and deflect. So the question is no longer what are they doing, it’s what are we doing about it?
Sources
- Young people obesity report The Guardian, 2025
