I'm not going to mention the company I work for, but I can verify that psychology is being used to advertise to kids. Mass manufactured food industry.

They will pick out very specific colours, mascot attributes, shapes and more to draw kids attention.

I shit you not, there's a certain cookie brand with a happy bear on the box that has eyes that look upwards. The entire purpose of this is to subconsciously make kids think that they're making eye contact with the happy mascot, so they'll trust it more. Certain colours are also believed to trigger more hunger in consumers. They play on so many factors in advertising that it isn't funny.

This is just one example, but this is definitely a thing that is happening in many companies.