The food and drink industry is entering what could be a pivotal year.
UK advertising restrictions on food and drink are about to get even tighter. While HFSS (high fat, salt and sugar) regulations are already in place, from 5 January 2026 these will evolve into broader LHF (less healthy foods) rules. These will result in stricter limits on paid-for online and TV ads, particularly around product-specific promotion.
That means brands whose portfolios lean on indulgence, snack culture or ‘treat’ positioning now face a fundamental marketing rethink.
At the same time, the behaviours that once fuelled those indulgences have changed. For example, while seven in 10 snack-eaters in the UK now indulge daily, there was a 15% reduction in at-home snacking in 2024, compared with 2020. And attitudes are continuing to shift as well, with 57% of Brits snacking on fruitand 41% snacking on vegetables each day, signalling a move towards healthier alternatives. This all points towards a recalibration of indulgence, portion size, context and ritual.
So if taste, craving and traditional ‘show-the-product’ ads are under pressure, what comes next?
Culture, not campaigns
When you’re restricted in how you show the product, the opportunity shifts from what you sell to how you exist.
Future-facing snack brands will move away from campaign mentality and evolve into culture engines. They’ll become curators of food moments, orchestrators of social rituals, and publishers of lifestyle rather than just manufacturers of biscuits, crisps and drinks.
And, increasingly, creators will lead the way. The next wave of food influence won’t come from big-budget TV chefs but from curators who bring flavour to culture – people like Slutty Cheff or the writers behind ‘The Goal is to Eat’ on Substack. These voices explore what food means now – connection, comfort, identity. They’re the new Bourdains, lifting the lid on what food looks and feels like in real life.
For brands, that means collaboration over control.
Instead of polished campaigns, the best work will be led by community-driven storytelling. This means audience’s rituals – the way they snack, share, and celebrate food – will become the brief instead of the product.
From food advertising to culture marketing
As the changes settle in, the strongest snacking campaigns might look less like food adverts and more like cultural propositions. So, creator-led content, music, fashion tie-ins and nostalgia, but all framed through the lens of food as behaviour, not product.
Think of social media turning brands into publishers, storytellers and taste-makers, rather than simply selling products. If taste and craving are no longer reliable triggers, the trigger has to become culture itself.
Emma Wills is client services director at Seen Connects
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