January 2026 saw the UK government introduce new restrictions on the advertising of less healthy food and drink. Far from substantially reducing the flood of advertising that nudges us toward unhealthy options, our research shows that loopholes and gaps in the regulations will likely significantly limit their potential impact.

In part, this is because the restrictions only cover pre-watershed TV advertising (a declining format) and paid online advertising, leaving a number of advertising channels including outdoor advertising (eg, billboards and bus stops) and owned and direct digital marketing channels (company websites, social media pages, email marketing channels and push notifications) untouched.

These regulations were built for the past, not geared for the future. Where we could once avoid advertising, most of us now engage with screens on a constant basis. Digital advertising has proliferated, becoming part of the scenery of our online lives - forcing the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to adopt AI-powered monitoring systems to manage what it describes as “millions of executions [ads] every day by tens of thousands of advertisers and content creators”.

This constant exposure makes it far harder to tune out unhealthy prompts, intensifying the impact of a food environment that drives us to over-consume. To better understand this evolving landscape, we conducted a series of interviews with eight industry insiders about the dominant forces shaping the advertising industry.

After further analysis, we identified four pivotal digital advertising trends. Here we look at how these trends may shape the future of our food environment:

Industry insiders emphasised how advertising has moved from a channel-centric model (placing a TV advert) to one that relentlessly tracks and targets the individual. We were told that brands are increasingly using personal data to know when a person is “literally on the verge of buying something” and looking for “quick fixes, convenience”.

At Nesta, we think this level of surveillance could have harmful consequences for our health. Currently, our advertising regulations do not restrict any advertising using direct digital marketing channels. Therefore, if a pizza company can estimate when a consumer is stressed, tired or most likely to crave indulgence, they can legally serve a perfectly timed text or app notification directly to a customer’s device. As one insider said: “We have data that understands people and I don’t care if they’re watching TV or scrolling through their phone. If I know it's the right person, I'll serve them your ad.”

We think this level of hyper-targeting could risk exploiting consumer vulnerabilities, driving impulse purchases of cheap, unhealthy products and making it harder for individuals to stick to healthy choices. Our report also finds that people living in more deprived areas are more exposed to less healthy advertising, so this trend could risk further widening health inequalities.

Several industry insiders described how economic pressures and the demand for “immediate return on ad spend” are already pushing the advertising industry to prioritise short-term, “bottom of the funnel” purchase results. We were told that rather than investing in storytelling or building brand loyalty, budgets are shifting to ads that primarily trigger an immediate click and sale. “It’s transaction, transaction, transaction,” lamented one interviewee.

For consumers, this means being consistently nudged at the digital checkout and prompted on delivery apps, social media feeds and retail sites. Crucially, this shift pushes activity into channels the regulations don't touch - brands' apps, websites, direct emails and SMS. These channels are also where transactional pressure is most intense: in-app upsells, push notifications, and urgency cues like ‘today only’. Our report found that 22% of people already receive three or more food and drink marketing messages per day, with 64% promoting an unhealthy brand or product. These tactics are known to encourage impulse purchasing and can undermine efforts to support healthier choices.

The nature of who influences us is shifting. Rather than big-name celebrities, advertising budgets are moving toward larger cohorts of ultra-niche micro-creators whose content feels authentic, entertaining and community-rooted. One interviewee recalled a major international food brand reporting a ~120% year-on-year increase in influencer engagements.

At Nesta, we think that the ever-expanding role of influencers could make existing weaknesses in the advertising regulations even more significant. Brand and range advertising is exempt from the current restrictions - meaning McDonald's can advertise its brand or Happy Meal range, even if not a specific unhealthy burger. As spend shifts into unregulated formats, it’s reasonable to assume that influencers may increasingly be used for brand advertising. The evidence that brand advertising drives consumption as effectively as product advertising is still mixed, but brand advertising delivered through trusted personal voices may amplify any such effect.

Industry insiders explained how AI’s capacity to analyse vast amounts of data allows brands to deliver unprecedented personalisation. Large language models are also disrupting how we search for products - instead of consumers clicking through websites to compare options, many queries are now directly curated by AI.

The future impact of AI on food purchasing could be profound. One interviewee envisioned AI executing entire transactions, requiring only final customer authorisation. They suggested a user could ask their smart speaker to “fill the fridge” and AI could autonomously manage the rest, returning the products for final purchase approval. If models optimise for what drives the most instant engagement, highly palatable, unhealthy foods could inevitably dominate these transactions. AI would be shaping consumer behaviour, rather than paid advertisements - this would suggest that the tech companies running these models may eventually require regulation outside of the traditional food or advertising sectors. For now, advertising insiders currently hope to manage this by keeping a “human in the loop” for models in use, and the Advertising Association has issued recommendations on the use of AI in advertising.

Our report paints a clear picture: we need advertising rules that can adapt to the future, rather than those that are built for the past. The modern advertising and marketing playbook is designed to bypass rational decision-making and exploit our vulnerabilities. As one insider described, it’s "consumption at any cost, 24/7”.

Gaps and loopholes in the regulations are already significant today - but if the advertising industry moves further along these trends, these weaknesses may only be exacerbated over time.

The result may be a genuine crisis of enforcement. The sheer volume and type of content - from AI-optimised campaigns to posts from thousands of micro-influencers - makes existing rules incredibly hard to police. Increasingly precise personalisation also makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint what any individual is actually seeing.

If we want to tackle obesity and future-proof advertising policy, regulatory frameworks must evolve as quickly as the industry itself. This will require deep and productive collaboration between government, the food and advertising industry and the technology sector to ensure digital food advertising is not given a free pass to drive unhealthy consumption.