Everyone has heard the familiar jingles of “I’m lovin’ it”, “finger-lickin’ good”, or “have it your way” from well-known fast-food companies. Their tunes are often displayed on billboards or in the background of commercials.
A business’s success is nothing without its marketing, and this applies to the familiar fast food industry’s marketing methods.
Nevertheless, the style and thinking behind their marketing go deeper than fun songs and silly commercials. What happens under the surface and who they are targeting in their methods can even be considered dangerous.
According to “Yale News”, fast-food companies focus their marketing strategies on children and adolescents for a few reasons, as for the most part, children and adolescents have some sway over their parents’ purchasing decisions.
Many companies capitalize on these kids by offering kids’ meals and collectible toys to accompany them, encouraging families with children to buy from them. As a result, the family’s spending increases the company’s profit, and they harbor a suitable reputation for being kid-friendly.
In addition to kids’ meals, these companies also present combo deals, where you can receive more food and pay less. However, this encourages overconsumption because people may end up ordering more food than they would have originally, under the pretense of saving money.
As technology advances and the usage of the internet becomes more normalized in today’s society, fast food companies additionally utilize social media and mobile apps as some of their main marketing mechanisms.
Adolescents and teens are the major social media users and are the main recipients of those marketing tactics. This gives companies the chance to take advantage of the vulnerability of the younger generation, and can often promote unhealthier options to those who don’t know better. They are the next adult generation for the future, and can supply insight into what food culture will hold as a direct result.
Loyalty apps, making it easier to order, deliver, and earn rewards, also encourage fast food consumption. Oftentimes, they use a point system structure, where you earn points from ordering, and those points then offer additional rewards, which consequently bring you back to their store.
Further, fast-food companies partner with third-party delivery companies to make food quite literally available at the click of a button. These companies offer a higher convenience for the consumer to be able to order food without ever stepping past their front door.
Moreover, fast-food companies invest in different methods to promote their products, such as using preservatives, food dyes, and artificial flavors to look more visually appealing. Often catering to the smell, texture, and taste to draw consumers in.
The problem is the long-term consequences of constantly consuming unhealthy ingredients. The role that junk food plays in individuals’ lives goes deeper than just reacting to marketing strategies; it’s necessary to consider the underlying psychology behind it.
As stated by the Harvard Gazette, fast food is loaded with ingredients that effectively trigger the dopamine reward pathway in the brain, and follow the same path that drugs, like cocaine, travel down.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter the brain produces to reinforce certain behaviors viewed as beneficial to survival, delivering the feeling of pleasure and influencing mood and behavior.
When an individual consumes ultra-processed foods, which contain high amounts of sugar, dopamine causes temporary comfort, and therefore pushes the individual into a cycle of desiring to eat it again to feel that satiation, causing oblivion to the long-term consequences while relishing in the temporary pleasure of the short-term effects.
Whether it’s the dopamine rush, the marketing tactics, loyalty programs, or even the colorful billboards and jingles, the fast food industry knows how to target its growing audience; however, the consequent health results could have the consumer saying they are not “lovin’ it.”