Well, the HFSS regulations are here, and FMCG brands and retailers are already feeling the impact. For anyone working in food & drink PR, it can look like a wave of restrictions and rules. And while much of the conversation has understandably focused on what’s being taken away, it’s worth taking a pause to look at the bigger, more colourful picture. This isn’t simply an age of restriction. It’s an age where brilliant PR for FMCG brands can truly thrive.
From restriction to opportunity for FMCG brands
When brands lose the ability to shout with endless promotions and product-led messages, the ones that win are those that connect with purpose. Restrictions force clarity. They reward brands that understand who they are, what they stand for, and how they fit into people’s everyday lives. For FMCG marketers, that can feel uncomfortable at first.
It’s harder to hide behind a big price flash or an in-aisle takeover. But it also opens the door to more thoughtful, more human centric shopper marketing ideas that work harder and build brand equity.
Shopper PR has never been just about product
HFSS regulations may have made it tougher for some brands to lead with product or price, but this isn’t a loss for PR. Quite the opposite. At its best, shopper PR has never relied on product-first messaging. It has always centred on a brand’s DNA: its beliefs, its behaviours, and its role in real people’s lives.
This is storytelling in its purest form. Ideas that travel because they spark emotion, create conversation, reflect culture and feel genuinely relatable, not because they’re pushed hardest at shelf. For food & drink PRs and FMCG brand teams [link this whole phrase to Services page or Shopper PR service page], that’s a space we know well. HFSS simply makes that kind of thinking even more important.
Emotional storytelling wins when shelf “shouting” fades
As HFSS restrictions bite, choice becomes harder at shelf. Shoppers are overwhelmed by similar products, similar claims and similar formats. In that environment, the brands that resonate emotionally are the brands that earn trust, build loyalty and drive long-term growth. If your PR is only about what you sell, you’re vulnerable. If it’s about why you exist and how you show up in people’s lives, you’re much harder to ignore.
That’s where smarter PR and retail communications come in building memory structures before people hit the aisle, showing up in the right retail and shopper media with a clear point of view, and using partnerships, experiences and content to make the brand feel familiar before shoppers even see the shelf.
Attention can’t be demanded – it has to be earned
It goes without saying that we’re all operating in a climate of information fatigue. Recent studies suggest many people are actively tuning out news and brand messages because the volume feels overwhelming. Attention is no longer something brands can demand. It’s something they must earn.
For FMCG brands, that means adding value, not noise. It means creating conversations people want to be part of and designing campaigns shoppers choose to spend time with, rather than messages they feel forced to endure. HFSS regulations only amplify this reality. If you can’t rely on sheer volume and visibility in-store, you need ideas that people actually care about.
Shopper PR’s role before and after the shelf
For shopper PR [link “shopper PR” to Shopper PR service page], this opens a powerful opportunity: shaping perception and affinity before shoppers reach the shelf and reinforcing belief long after they’ve left it. Done well, shopper PR can prime people before they shop through retailer media, social content, influencers and editorial that bring the brand’s story to life.
It can support decisions in and around the store with smart, compliant touchpoints that feel helpful, not pushy. And it can reinforce positive feelings after purchase, with ideas and experiences that make people feel good about the choice they made. HFSS might limit certain formats or mechanics, but it doesn’t limit imagination. In many ways, it pushes FMCG brands towards the kind of shopper marketing that was always most effective: meaningful ideas, grounded in real human insight.
So what now for shopper PR?
For FMCG marketers, HFSS restrictions don’t have to mean smaller ideas. They mean smarter ones – and shopper PR that connects with people long before and long after they reach the shelf. At Joe Public, our focus is shopper PR and retail communications for FMCG brands, helping them build stories that earn attention when traditional promotions are restricted and the rules are changing. The age of restriction doesn’t have to be a threat.
For brands willing to rethink how they show up for shoppers, it can be a golden moment. If you’d like to explore what HFSS means for your next campaign, we’d love to talk [link “we’d love to talk” to Contact page].
