The Irresistible Bite: Why Food is Everywhere in Non-Food Ads

Scroll through social media or browse the latest fashion and beauty campaigns, and you'll notice something… delicious. From lip glosses named after desserts to designer handbags styled with fresh produce, food has found a surprising home in non-food marketing. While using food to evoke desire isn’t new- think vintage perfume ads with fruity notes - what’s happening in 2025 marks a significant rise in food’s strategic use across industries. This isn’t just about pretty pictures; it’s a smart, deliberate trend known as the Gastronomic Aesthetic.

Brands, especially those targeting gen z and millennials, have mastered the art of tapping into food’s universal, emotional appeal. This generation craves authenticity, comfort, and sensory experience. Food offers all three, along with a potent hit of nostalgia. Visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram, which thrive on emotional immediacy, have helped amplify this aesthetic. When food appears alongside a product, it signals something deeper- warmth, joy, indulgence -and can make an everyday item feel irresistible.

So how exactly does this sensory magic work? Let’s dive into the psychology of the Gastronomic Aesthetic and how brands are plating up powerful emotional connections.

The Psychology on Your Plate: What Makes It Work?

Sensory Marketing and Cross-Modal Transfer

Food imagery works because our brains instinctively associate it with other senses - taste, smell, even touch. This is known as Cross-Modal Sensory Transfer: seeing food can spark the illusion of tasting or smelling it. Marketers use this trick to make non-edible products feel more tangible and desirable.

For example, Rhode Beauty’s 'Peptide Lip Tint in Cinnamon Roll' instantly brings to mind the warmth of a sweet pastry. The product itself isn’t edible, but your brain doesn’t care. The implied flavour and comfort get mentally transferred to the brand.

Priming and The Dopamine Effect

Priming is when exposure to one stimulus subtly influences future behaviour. Seeing enticing food imagery triggers dopamine - the 'feel-good' brain chemical linked to reward and pleasure. That emotional boost doesn’t just make you hungry; it makes you more receptive to whatever’s being sold alongside it.

It’s a subconscious process. Your brain associates the product with that same happy buzz without realising it.

Emotional Anchoring and Nostalgia

Food is memory. It connects us to family, traditions, childhood. Marketers use this emotional weight as anchoring, attaching warm, nostalgic feelings to their product. It’s not just about what looks good - it’s about what feels familiar.

Especially in uncertain times, nostalgia becomes a kind of psychological comfort food. Brands that use food to tap into that emotional space foster loyalty and deep resonance.

The Halo Effect and Perceived Value

This cognitive bias means that when we like one attribute (e.g., 'beautiful food'), we tend to assume other good traits (e.g., 'premium product'). Pretty, organic-looking food transfers its 'clean,' 'luxury,' or 'high-quality' feel to adjacent non-food items.
The Gastronomic Aesthetic uses this Halo Effect to suggest that if the food is elegant or wholesome, the brand must be too.

The Proof is in the Pudding: Brands Doing it Right

Rhode Beauty: The 'Glazed Donut' Phenomenon

Hailey Bieber’s Rhode has become synonymous with the 'glazed donut skin' aesthetic - shiny, dewy, and deliciously indulgent. The brand’s Lip Peptide Tints are often styled next to glazed donuts or cherry scones, creating an immediate emotional cue: self-care that feels like a treat.

This is Sensory Marketing in action. The visuals prime us to crave the experience, and the nostalgic comfort of desserts strengthens the emotional connection. By making skincare feel edible and luxurious, Rhode captures a blend of aspiration and intimacy that’s highly shareable and deeply appealing.

Image source: left, Rhode Beauty; Medium Magazin and right, Rhode Beauty; Nylon Magazin

Jacquemus: Butter & Toast Campaigns

Jacquemus is no stranger to surreal, food-forward campaigns. One iconic moment? Its tiny 'Le Chiquito' bag surrounded by pats of butter and toast. It’s bold, bizarre, and deeply human.

The campaign leveraged food’s universal appeal to drive virality. More than just visual novelty, this tactic applied the Halo Effect—infusing playful, everyday foods with high-fashion energy. The result: approachable luxury that breaks the rules while staying memorable.

Image source: Jacquemus - Pinterest

Loewe: The Tomato Campaign

For its 2025 campaign, Loewe centred tomatoes—yes, tomatoes—as objects of beauty. Artfully photographed and prominently displayed, they weren’t just props; they were symbols of refinement.

This use of fresh produce wasn’t random. Tomatoes represented simplicity, richness, and craft—values Loewe wants to be associated with. It’s another example of the Halo Effect, where the artistic, natural quality of food shapes how we see the brand.

Image source: left, Loewe – British Vogue; centre, Loewe – Loewe.com and right Loewe - Instagram

The Enduring Allure of the Edible Aesthetic

From the soft suggestion of cinnamon roll–flavoured gloss to the bold presence of produce in high fashion, food has become a powerful narrative tool in marketing. Brands are no longer just selling products—they’re creating sensory experiences, using food’s universal language to build emotional depth and visual intrigue.

The Gastronomic Aesthetic thrives in our fast-scrolling digital world because it works on instinct, not logic. It’s about pleasure, memory, and emotion served up instantly in an image. As consumers continue to crave more than just function from their purchases, expect food to remain the tastiest tool in a brand’s creative arsenal.