A new research project will use AI to investigate how nostalgic advertising is used in food communication
Assistant Professor of Psychology Alejandra Zaragoza Scherman will examine how nostalgia advertising is used in food ads and other food messages in Europe using artificial intelligence. The project is supported by an AUFF NOVA Grant from the Aarhus University Research Foundation.
Alejandra Zaragoza Scherman’s research explores how nostalgia – a bittersweet yet mostly positive longing for an idealised past – shapes our thoughts, feelings, and decisions. Nostalgia has long been used in advertising across sectors such as food, travel and leisure, and even in campaigns promoting prosocial or health-related behaviours, such as donating to charity or seeking help for depression.
By evoking autobiographical memories – the personal “good old times” we carry with us – nostalgic messages can also create strong emotional bonds between consumers and brands.
In this new project, Alejandra Zaragoza Scherman will analyse how nostalgia is deployed in food communication and food marketing to influence consumer behaviour and promote specific dietary habits in Europe. Her project, FOOD NOSTALGI-AI: Using Artificial Intelligence to Analyse Nostalgia Advertising in Food Communication, has received an AUFF NOVA Grant of DKK 720,000.
A broad interdisciplinary collaboration
The project brings together expertise from psychology, marketing, memory research and computer science. It is carried out in collaboration between Alejandra Zaragoza Scherman from CON AMORE – Center on Autobiographical Memory Research and the Centre for Integrative Business Psychology (CIBP), Aarhus BSS; Associate Professor Susanne Pedersen, Postdoctoral Fellows Alina Both and Simone Lykke Tranholm Mouritzen from the MAPP Centre, Aarhus BSS; Assistant Professor Akhil Arora from the Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University; and Associate Professor Stella Graßhof from the IT University of Copenhagen.
Further information
