Algorithm™: the food brand exposing the toxic diet of the modern internet
A new food brand has appeared across the UK, but it isn’t trying to sell you anything edible. Algorithm™ is a fictional label created by the Cybersmile Foundation as part of its latest campaign, Stop The Forced Feed—a sharp, unsettling commentary on the invisible systems shaping what we see online.
The algorithm doesn’t wait for your consent
Cybersmile’s recent research reveals a disturbing truth: harmful content—racism, misogyny, violence—can appear in an adult’s feed within 16 seconds, and in a child’s within eight minutes, without any active search. It arrives uninvited, disguised as “recommended”, “for you”, or “trending”.
The campaign reframes this digital intrusion as something physical: if we are being fed toxic content, then let’s treat it like food. Food you would never choose, yet somehow ends up on your plate.
A brand designed to disturb, not to sell
Working with Havas SO and Conran Design Group, Cybersmile developed Algorithm™ under the creative concept The Dark Mode. The result is a range of blackened, uncanny food items whose labels mirror the toxicity of online culture:
- Racist White Bread
- Homophobic Grown Apples
- Free Range Misogyny
Each product is a metaphor for the material that algorithms push into our feeds—content that is as harmful as it is ubiquitous.
The boxes were shipped across the country as if they were genuine groceries. They appeared on shelves at Tesco in Leicester, were delivered to 10 Downing Street as “food HARMpers”, and arrived at the doors of journalists, policymakers and influencers, many of whom filmed their unboxings in disbelief.
A short film that speaks in the algorithm’s true voice
Cybersmile also collaborated with Prose on Pixels on a short promotional film for Algorithm™. Shadowy shots of users scrolling in the dark are intercut with the brand’s eerie products, while a glitching, synthetic narrator outlines the logic of the modern feed:
“If it shocks you, we serve it. If it offends you, we stir the pot. If it hurts you, we double the portion.”
It is a rare moment in which the algorithm’s incentives are spoken aloud—and they sound exactly as ruthless as they are.
From creative provocation to political demand
Stop The Forced Feed is not simply a design exercise. It is a call for user rights. Cybersmile argues that people should have full control over the algorithms shaping their online experience—not vague options like “see less of this”, but real tools to prevent harmful content before it reaches them.
As Cybersmile CEO Scott Freeman explains, the goal is to empower users and caregivers to protect themselves without relying on opaque platform decisions.
Why this matters now
Algorithm™ works because it exposes something we all feel but rarely articulate: the sense that our feeds are no longer ours. The campaign forces us to confront the idea that we are being fed a diet we did not choose, curated by systems we cannot see, for purposes we do not control.
In a culture where design, politics and technology increasingly overlap, Algorithm™ is a reminder that the most dangerous products are often the ones we never consciously consume.