Lobster, the cockroach of the sea, was a sign of poverty and being poor… it became fancy through a powerful rebranding.
http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/how-lobster-got-fancy-59440
The book “Salt Sugar Fat” talks about a lot of things, but the push of cheese in the 80’s and 90’s, as well as an earlier fixation on Philadelphia Cream Cheese, is absolutely insane. The pushing of salt and fat into the marketing success (and failure for health) “Lunchables” is just horrifying:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/02/26/172969363/how-the-food-industry-manipulates-taste-buds-with-salt-sugar-fat
Then it was bacon…. a glut of low priced pork belly got the meat industry marketing team to think deeply, and figured out how to bribe the restaurant industry to put bacon into everything. They learned it by watching CHEESE ALRIGHT! They learned it by watching cheese….
“Bacon: Why America’s Food Mania Happened”
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-10-06/bacon-why-americas-favorite-food-mania-happened
and
“You like Bacon because they told you to”
http://foodspin.deadspin.com/you-like-bacon-because-they-told-you-to-1642981536
Quinoa was recently known only as poor Andean mountain people’s food, and now there’s not enough of it for those people because the hip, young yoga people love it as a trendy superfood.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/08/15/212342707/can-quinoa-farming-go-global-without-leaving-andeans-behind
What’s more… the marketing push for ethanol (and many, many other factors) actually caused riots in Mexico, because tortillas (a main staple) became too expensive for the poorer Mexican families.
http://www.economist.com/node/10250420
and
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601896.html
and