A similar concept to the “halo effect” is the naturalness hypothesis which explains why people exhibit strong associations between prettiness and naturalness and between naturalness and healthiness (Hagen, 2020). In marketing and advertising, professionals will frequently style their food and beverage products to look more pretty, knowing that their consumers will likely associate such products with being healthier. Additionally, pretty aesthetics tend to prompt more favorable evaluations than others. This can be seen in the example that Hagen (2020) discusses regarding the association between healthiness and sophistication. As a society, we often associate “upper class” citizens with being more sophisticated and having a more pleasing aesthetic lifestyle. Hagen goes on to explain how mass media portrays success as tantamount to being slim and fit, as well as expensive foods being perceived to be healthier. This phenomenon shows how humans subconsciously associate one aspect of their lives with those of others and how they aspire to live a certain way depending on what is depicted in the media and online.

In this respect, Zhang (2015) makes an apt comparison between pretty foods and consumer likability that can help give this association further credibility. He says that “Food and its symbolic representation can be used to communicate ideas, values, identities, and attitudes'' (Mennell, 1996). Although this is not directly translatable to marketing and advertising of products, it indicates the importance of how food and beverages are represented and perceived by consumers, and can therefore translate to how advertisers choose to market their food and beverage products.

To round off this idea of brand representation, Chrysochou (2010) makes strong points surrounding consumer perceptions that are important to include. He discusses messages used by health brands and how they often try to promote aspects of products that can contribute to enhanced lifestyle values while tapping into consumers’ desires to optimize their personal health. This relates back to claims of consumer benefits which brands will commonly use when targeting their advertising towards the idea that their healthy products will give the consumer the opportunity to achieve weight loss, muscle strength, etc. To understand this phenomenon further, it is important to consider where these advertisements are being placed and by whom.