How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You Audiobook By Elira Fontayne cover art

How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You

10 Sneaky Tricks They Use!

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You

By: Elira Fontayne
Narrated by: Sarah Ziroll
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $6.95

Buy for $6.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Have you ever walked into a fast food restaurant planning to grab something small and left with a super-sized meal, dessert, and maybe even a toy? It’s not just you—and it’s not just coincidence. Fast food chains are experts at subtly influencing your decisions. They use colour, smell, sound, urgency, and emotional cues to encourage you to spend more, eat more, and keep coming back. These techniques aren’t random—they’re carefully crafted psychological strategies designed to benefit the company far more than the consumer.

In How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You, Elira Fontaine exposes the tricks behind the tray. This revealing and thought-provoking guide walks you through ten of the most common tactics used by fast food chains to nudge your choices and empty your wallet. You’ll never look at a “limited time offer” or a value meal the same way again.

This book takes you behind the scenes of the fast food industry’s most manipulative practices, including:

  • Mouth-watering menu photos designed to make you crave before you even feel hungry
  • Upselling techniques like “Would you like to go large?” that sound like friendly suggestions but are carefully calculated scripts
  • Combo “deals” that confuse your sense of value and lead you to spend more for less
  • Speed and convenience that push you to order fast and think less
  • Colour psychology, especially the use of red and yellow, to stimulate appetite and create urgency
  • Scent marketing that wafts the smell of fries or grilled meat toward you to trigger desire
  • False urgency tactics, like limited-time offers, to get you to act quickly without thinking
  • Marketing aimed at children, from toys to playgrounds, creating brand loyalty before they can even spell it
  • Health halos, where items like salads seem healthy but come loaded with hidden calories
  • Charm pricing and decoy tactics that guide your eye—and your order—to more profitable items

With every chapter, Fontaine pulls back the curtain on a different strategy, helping listeners understand not only what the trick is, but why it works—and how to spot it before it affects your choices. The book is written in a clear, engaging style, making complex marketing psychology accessible and eye-opening for a wide audience. Whether you’re a curious consumer, a parent, a student, or simply someone who’s tired of being tricked into buying more than you want or need, this book arms you with insight and awareness.

But this isn’t just about blaming the burger chains. It’s about reclaiming your autonomy. By understanding how these tactics work, you put yourself back in the driver’s seat. You’ll learn to pause, question, and make intentional decisions—even in environments designed to bypass your better judgment.

How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You is more than a deep dive into marketing—it’s a handbook for resisting manipulation in one of the most common areas of everyday life. Once you see the tricks, you can’t unsee them. And once you learn how they work, you can make food choices based on what you want—not what the menu, the smell, the colours, or the friendly cashier are subtly suggesting.

This book will empower you to:

Recognise the psychological traps at play in fast food environments

Save money and make smarter purchasing decisions

Teach children how to spot marketing manipulation early

Approach every fast food visit with more awareness and less regret

So next time you hear, “Would you like to go large?”—you’ll know exactly what’s really going on.

©2025 Deep Vision Media t/a Zentara UK (P)2025 Deep Vision Media t/a Zentara UK
All stars
Most relevant  

Listener received this title free

How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You breaks down exactly how big chains mess with your mind—from mouth-watering photos to strategic scents. I love how it gives practical tips on resisting these tricks. It’s not preachy; it just makes you aware so you can choose for yourself. Worth every page.

A Must-Read for Anyone Trying to Eat Smarter

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

I finished this in two sittings. The writing is approachable, and the content is super informative. I’ll be sharing this with friends and family. Everyone needs to know how we’re being played

Informative and Easy to Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

I read this with my teenage son, and it sparked great conversations about media literacy and healthy choices. We now talk more critically about advertisements and what’s really being sold to us

Ideal for Parents and Teens

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

This book helped me see how easily I was being tricked into overspending. I now stick to what I actually want, not what I’m being nudged toward. It’s helped my budget and my health

Great for Budget-Conscious Shoppers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

Fascinating insight into how our minds are influenced without us even realizing it. The science and real-world examples are compelling. I appreciate how the book makes you feel informed not guilty

A Psychological Deep Dive Into Everyday Choice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

This book pulls back the curtain on something we all sort of knew but never really understood: why fast food is so hard to resist. Fontaine makes the psychology behind upsizing, combo meals, and even menu design really clear and relatable. I loved that it’s not preachy but practical—it gives you tools to notice the tactics and choose differently if you want to. After reading it, I feel more in control when I order out. Great insights for anyone who wants to spend less and eat more intentionally.

Uncovers the Psychology Behind the Drive-Thru Wind

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You completely changed how I see my quick stops at the drive-thru. I always thought I was making my own choices, but this book shows exactly how colours, smells, and clever wording push you to buy more than you planned. Elira Fontaine explains the tricks so clearly that you can’t help but spot them the next time you’re tempted by a “limited time” combo deal. If you care about spending wisely or just making more conscious choices, this book is a must-read!

this book is a must-read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

I picked up this book because I have young kids and I’m always battling their constant requests for fast food. How Fast Food Restaurants Manipulate You does an amazing job breaking down how companies target kids with toys, playgrounds, and bright colours to create lifelong customers. The sections on scent marketing and upselling were especially eye-opening. Now I feel better equipped to teach my kids how to pause and think before falling for clever marketing. Highly recommend for any parent who wants to shop—and eat—more mindfully.

Practical, Informative, and a Bit Shocking

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

You don’t need a background in marketing to understand this book. The writing is clear, the examples are relatable, and the impact is real. I’ve changed how I approach fast food altogether

Simple Yet Powerful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

Elira Fontaine breaks down each manipulation tactic in simple terms. I never realized how much thought goes into colors, smells, and even pricing. After reading this, I feel more confident making decisions that benefit me, not the fast food giants

The Truth Behind the Tray

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews