Branding Without Belonging: How AI-Generated Content Marketing Erases the Cultural Context of Heritage Foods

Abstract Book of the 13th International Conference on New Findings in Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Branding Without Belonging: How AI-Generated Content Marketing Erases the Cultural Context of Heritage Foods

Khushi Choudhary

ABSTRACT:

Baked goods transport cultural memory through rituals and migrations. But when AI tools convert heritage into marketing content, cultural depth disappears. This research, informed by the author’s baking business, where this tension shaped brand decisions, combines a literature synthesis with a comparative prompt experiment across AI models to test cultural depth suppression in commercial contexts. For six baked goods, each model was queried under Commercial, Open-Ended, and Preservation contexts. Responses were scored using a rubric for cultural depth and marketing context. Commercial prompts scored 83% lower in depth than Preservation prompts. Focus narrowed to commercial needs across models, with little attention to cultural depth. Preservation prompts revealed cultural symbolism, indicating knowledge is present but only becomes apparent under proper framing. These findings carry brand positioning implications. As AI is used to generate product content, culturally informed prompts are essential to preserve brand authenticity while scaling heritage-baked goods.

Keywords: AI Cultural Bias; Food Heritage; Large Language Models; AI And Society