Big tobacco using cigarette marketing tactics to push ultra-processed foods, journal finds
Big tobacco companies deployed the same marketing and product-formulation strategies that fuelled the cigarette epidemic to sell ultra-processed foods to children, including the popular lunchtime brand Lunchables, according to a special issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). The research, presented at a press briefing on Tuesday, underscores a deliberate corporate playbook that crossed from tobacco into the nation’s food supply.
From cigarettes to hyperpalatable snacks
The parallels are not accidental. Academics who examined previously secret internal documents from tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris (now Altria) found that after the companies acquired major food corporations – Philip Morris bought General Foods in 1985 and Kraft in 1988, while R.J. Reynolds took over Nabisco – they systematically applied cigarette-era techniques to food products. Tera Fazzino, a psychology professor and addiction researcher at the University of Kansas, told the briefing that she “examined over 100 previously secret primary industry source documents” and concluded that the companies “use the same strategies that they use to develop their international tobacco businesses to develop their international food businesses”.
A recent study published in Milbank Quarterly, on which the AJPH issue builds, described how tobacco-owned food brands optimised carbohydrate and fat formulations for rapid delivery, maximised “hedonic impact” and created products that “produce a quick hit of reward that fades” – compelling consumers to return for more. Fazzino’s own research showed that between 1988 and 2001, tobacco-owned foods were 29% more likely to be classified as fat-and-sodium hyperpalatable and 80% more likely to be carbohydrate-and-sodium hyperpalatable compared with non-tobacco-owned foods. These are foods engineered to be difficult to stop eating, a property the industry calls hyperpalatability.
The adoption of tobacco marketing tactics extended to product names and categories. “King-sized” food items directly imitated “king-sized” cigarettes, Fazzino explained. When cigarette companies worried about health-conscious smokers, they developed “light” cigarettes; later, they replicated the approach with “light” and “reduced-fat” ultra-processed food (UPF) products to retain customers who might otherwise cut back. The same consumer psychology methods used for tobacco were repurposed. “Product designers at Philip Morris had a technique called consumer-driven product development, where they use psychological research on consumers to get under the hood and understand their unconscious wants and needs,” said Laura Schmidt, a health policy professor at the University of California, San Francisco, during the briefing. Marketing strategies originally honed for cigarettes, such as the “Marlboro Country Store” campaigns, were directly applied to children’s food products like Kool-Aid.
The health toll of ultra-processed foods
A growing body of evidence now links high consumption of UPFs to a range of serious health conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and cognitive decline. Cindy Leung, a public health nutrition professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, presented findings during the briefing showing that people whose diets contained large quantities of UPFs “had a 58% higher risk of developing dementia, a 46% higher risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, and a 47% higher risk of either of those two outcomes”. Leung stressed that these results come from observational studies – randomised clinical trials on nutrition are often impractical – but argued they are both significant and “biologically plausible”, meaning there are strong theories about how UPFs might cause such harms. The majority of the U.S. diet now consists of ultra-processed foods, contributing to rising rates of obesity-related chronic disease.
How Lunchables were born
Lunchables, a beloved children’s food brand, were developed using the same big tobacco playbook, Schmidt said. Philip Morris acquired Kraft in 1988 and launched Lunchables nationally shortly thereafter. The product was designed not primarily for nutrition but to fulfil children’s “underlying drive for independence, autonomy and play”, Schmidt explained. The company used psychological research to tap into unconscious desires, mirroring the consumer-driven product development that had long been used for cigarettes. Since Kraft launched Lunchables under Philip Morris, the food company later became independent and eventually merged with Heinz to form Kraft-Heinz. Philip Morris rebranded as Altria.
Policy failures and industry influence
Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and public health professor emerita at New York University, applauded the “Make America healthy again” (Maha) movement for bringing attention to UPFs, while noting that the movement is “feelings-based” rather than science-based and makes mistakes. Lindsey Smith Taillie, a nutrition professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, echoed Nestle’s sentiment, saying Maha deserves credit for “shifting this narrative away from personal responsibility and lack of willpower to the real culprit, which is the food industry that makes and sells and markets these products, especially to kids”.
Nevertheless, Nestle and other experts pointed out that the Trump administration has made policy changes that could worsen the problem and has failed to direct policies that could help. Government corn subsidies have made high-fructose corn syrup artificially cheap, leading to its widespread use as a key ingredient in many UPFs, while the cost of fruits and vegetables has risen. Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup is linked to obesity, fatty liver disease, insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. Nestle noted that the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee did not issue recommendations limiting UPF consumption, despite established evidence of harm – a shortcoming she attributes in part to industry influence. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can help people afford whole foods, but Nestle said the current administration is “trying in every way possible to reduce Snap enrolments. That’s going in the wrong direction.” The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has enacted significant cuts to SNAP, expanded work requirements, shifted costs to states and restricted access for some immigrants.
Altria and Kraft-Heinz did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment.
