With the importance of mental health clearer than ever, marketers must face the complicated relationship between advertisements and the consumer’s mental health.
Advertisements that promote harmful products with real-world health consequences have always existed. Soda can contribute to diabetes and obesity, alcohol can cause liver disease. But common knowledge makes these dangers feel obvious to most of us, and we generally expect people to regulate their own consumption.
When it comes to mental health, this expectation feels more insidious.
How Does Advertising Affect Mental Health?
The influence of advertising goes deeper than purchase behavior; it reaches into our self-image, mood, relationships, and ultimately our mental health.
On the surface, advertising is a tool of commercial persuasion: designed to inform, inspire, and influence. But the emotional undercurrents of these messages — especially repeated over time — can shape how people feel about themselves and the world around them. Advertising doesn’t just tell us what to buy; it tells us what’s normal, desirable, and makes us worthy of belonging.
Whether it’s an ad that sparks joy or one that quietly erodes confidence, every campaign has the power to shape emotional responses. These effects are magnified on social media platforms, where we’re served hyper-personalized content designed to engage, and sometimes, exploit, our most vulnerable moments.
And while digital formats dominate today, television advertisements and other nondigital advertising formats have historically played similar roles in shaping our psyche, reminding us that the medium may change, but the mental health stakes remain.
So when we ask, “How does advertising affect mental health?” we’re really asking: what kind of emotional environment are we building through the stories we tell?
The Positive Impacts of Advertising on Mental Health
It’s not all bad news. Advertising, when done with care, can actually support mental health outcomes.
Narrative-driven campaigns have been shown to increase empathy, reduce stigma, and elevate public discourse around mental well-being. One study, Increasing Mental Health Literacy via Narrative Advertising, found that ads that told stories about mental health challenges significantly increased mental health literacy and decreased stigma among viewers.
Ads can also provide representation and validation. Seeing people who look, live, or feel like us in mainstream media can foster positive attitudes and counter feelings of isolation. This is particularly true when campaigns highlight cultural diversity and challenge narrow beauty or success standards.
Even humor and lightness in advertising can play a role. A well-timed laugh or a comforting message can create real emotional uplift — and that’s no small thing in an anxious world.
Done right, advertising can be more than a message. Ads can prompt behavioral responses that support, rather than harm, well-being. They can be a mirror, a connector, and sometimes even a teacher.
The Negative Impacts of Advertising on Mental Health
Of course, not all advertising uplifts. Some of it pressures, distorts, or wounds.
Advertising often trades in idealization. Flawless bodies. Perfect homes. Effortless success. These messages, repeated constantly, shape our consumer perceptions and can lead to feelings of inadequacy or shame, particularly among young people.
An Op-Ed in the Michigan Journal of Economics reminds us that “ads don’t just sell products, they sell images and ideals,” which can make “some people less confident and more anxious about their appearance.”
This is especially true for promotional activities tied to health, beauty, fitness, and self-worth, where the harmful effects can include anxiety, depression, and distorted self-image.
In many cases, the impact of advertisement is cumulative. It’s not just one airbrushed photo or one influencer with perfect skin, it’s the repeated voice that worms its way into the brain, the one that says “you’re not enough… but you could be if you bought this.”
The effects of advertising are especially insidious when brands exploit social anxieties — offering a product as a fix for things like loneliness, low self-worth, or social exclusion. In cases like these, emotional manipulation is more than a side effect, it’s the strategy.
The Impact of Social Media and Digital Advertising
What happens when this mental health pressure meets algorithmic precision?
Digital and online advertising aren’t just more frequent, they’re more personal. Ads on social media platforms are designed to blend in, feel organic, and target us based on what we scroll, like, pause on, or say aloud near our phones.
This creates a uniquely potent form of commercial persuasion, one that’s invisible, unskippable, and hyper-individualized. The intent of advertising may still be to sell, but the delivery feels like part of your identity.
This is particularly concerning for youth. A 2019 study from JAMA Psychiatry found that adolescents who used social media for over three hours per day were significantly more likely to experience internalizing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
Social media advertising’s influence on children can escape scrutiny, even though it’s more immersive and harder to detect than traditional television advertisements.
That’s not to say digital advertising is inherently harmful. But when ads exploit our fears, reinforce unrealistic standards, or blur the line between content and commerce, the potential impacts become clear.
The key takeaway? The more personalized and immersive advertising becomes, the more responsibility marketers carry for its mental health consequences.
How Does Advertising Affect Kids?
Near the turn of the century, the American Psychiatric Association was already warning consumers of the effects advertising has on young kids, identifying its impact as a blind spot of researchers and the public.
The task force who put this report together focused on the manipulative effects advertising has on young kids, framing such advertising as ethically problematic, given children’s developmental vulnerabilities.
“Advertising targeting children below the ages of 7–8 years is inherently unfair because it capitalizes on younger children’s inability to attribute persuasive intent to advertising.”
They note that cognitive limitation makes young children especially vulnerable to commercial messages, since they cannot critically evaluate the intent behind ads.
Since 2004, more research has been done and the world of advertising has grown tenfold, with growing opportunities in the digital landscape. A 2022 Systematic review reveals that this problem has only grown, and young children are not the only vulnerable ones. Adolescents are at risk too.
“Evidence shows that the attitudes of young people were influenced by advertising. Critical reasoning abilities did not appear to be fully developed during adolescence and not found to be protective against the impact of advertising.”
Older children and adolescents theoretically have more developed reasoning skills, yet they still showed positive brand/product attitudes after ad exposure — undermining assumptions that they can resist persuasion simply due to age. (American Academy of Pediatrics)
What this reveals is that marketing to children, whether through digital formats, in-school ads, or gamified commercial content, demands far more oversight. It’s not enough to assume children will develop skeptical attitudes toward ads with age. The data tells us otherwise.
Ethically Navigating Advertising’s Impact on Mental Health
We’re in an era where public discourse has caught up to the influence of advertising and that conversation is increasingly being led by consumers, not brands.
People today expect brands to go beyond the facade. They’re asking for creative that reflects cultural diversity, protects mental health, and tells stories without exploiting our fears or insecurities. But meaningful progress here requires brands to rethink not just the intent of advertising, but its potential consequences.
“As we move into 2025, it’s clear that this outdated approach is no longer cutting it. Consumers, especially younger generations, see right through performative efforts, and they’re not afraid to call out brands that miss the mark,” we elaborate on our most recent blog post DEI in Marketing: Why Authenticity is Key. Click Here to learn more.
Let’s talk about influencer marketing, for instance, a format that blends personal storytelling with promotional intent. At its best, it humanizes a brand. But when influencer partnerships are overly filtered, emotionally manipulative, or promote unattainable lifestyles, they risk reinforcing the very issues audiences are trying to escape. Especially on social media platforms, where emotional responses drive engagement, these strategies must be approached with care.
Similarly, algorithmic targeting (especially in online advertising) raises real ethical questions. The op-ed “The Costs of Targeted Advertising on Children and Mental Health” explores how companies are now able to build psychological profiles of users, including minors, based on their insecurities and behaviors: “These platforms collect mounds of data that enable companies to piece together users’ identities, insecurities, and purchasing behaviors.” And the payoff? Six social media platforms made $11 billion in 2022 from advertising to users under 18.
The question becomes not “how do advertisements affect us?” but “what will we do about it?”
Solutions-Oriented Advertising: What Marketers Can Do Now
At THE 3RD EYE, we believe advertising can be a force for good, without sacrificing creative impact or market share. Here’s what responsible advertising can look like:
1. Design for wellbeing
When crafting ad campaigns, start with a human lens. Think beyond consumer behaviour and toward long-term relationship-building. This means being aware of emotional triggers and opting for storytelling that empowers rather than pressures.
2. Rethink your success metrics
Algorithms are optimized for “time spent” and “engagement,” but that doesn’t have to be your north star. Instead, consider metrics that reflect quality interaction and resonance—especially with communities historically left out of wellness narratives.
3. Protect young audiences
As Ofcam’s 2023 Qualitative Study shows, the impact of advertising on children isn’t mitigated by age alone. Even older children and teens who are assumed to have more robust reasoning “still showed positive brand/product attitudes after ad exposure,” proving that greater knowledge of persuasion doesn’t automatically equal protection.
JAMA Psychiatry’s 2019 study shows that adolescents who spend more than 3 hours per day on social media are significantly more likely to report internalizing mental health problems, even after accounting for prior mental health history.
This data underscores a clear relationship between advertisement and mental health outcomes. Limiting exposure and redesigning digital experiences are not fringe ideas, they’re essential to protecting public health and supporting better physical activity and mental resilience for youth.
4. Normalize media literacy, not just disclosures
Disclosures like “#ad” are a start, but true impact comes from teaching consumers how to interpret the intent of advertising. Campaigns that share their creative process or explain why certain messages are used to build trust and support healthier consumer perceptions.
5. Center cultural authenticity
Cultural resonance beats tokenism every time. When brands invest in advertising practices that reflect their audience’s real lived experiences, not clichés, they build loyalty that goes far deeper than a product feature list. This includes showing a spectrum of body types, gender expressions, and socioeconomic realities. We should be seeking ethical loyalty based on genuine shared values rather than engaging in emotional manipulation.
(To learn more, check out our blog post DEI in Marketing: Why Authenticity is Key)
Final Thoughts: Advertising With Empathy
The impact of advertisement on mental health is too substantial, and too well-documented, to ignore. Research across social sciences shows us that advertising influences our emotions, choices, and even our identities. But if brands are part of the problem, they can be part of the solution too.
Narrative-led campaigns have the potential to rewrite harmful norms and foster positive attitudes, as demonstrated in Increasing Mental Health Literacy via Narrative Advertising where narrative ads were found to increase empathy and reduce mental health stigma.
In other words, stories sell — but they can also heal.
For advertisers and marketers, the challenge isn’t whether to engage with these issues. It’s how. And it starts with asking better questions: Who benefits from this message? What assumptions are we reinforcing? Is this campaign just memorable or is it meaningful?
Consumers are watching. And increasingly, they’re choosing brands who show they understand the true effects of advertising and take that responsibility seriously.
