In advertising one sometimes hears that some delicious food is naughty but nice. The idea apparently is that sweet (and probably fattening) food is a wicked pleasure that we can indulge but that in so doing we are a little bit naughty (probably harmlessly naughty). Underlying that idea is the foundational idea that pleasures are in and of themselves naughty or bad and that leads me to wonder if our culture has a subconscious thought that all pleasures are wicked in some way and therefore that God is against them.
Yes, they are selling a lie. I make and eat delicious food all the time that is good for me, healthy and is in no way "naughty". The people who advertise junk food advertise it like that because it IS naughty - it's usually full of refined sugar, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, artificial colors and flavors - a mockery of food. But their target audience are people who don't know or wish to know how to make healthy food for themselves. Since they won't or can't - they indulge in naughty food and are told that all delicious food is naughty.
So yes the advertising is deceptive and it's deceptive to trick people into buying a product. The basic lie is that in order for one to enjoy the food they are eating, one must eat "naughty" food. The food that *they sell*.
I reckon that God wants his people to be happy and to enjoy creation so that means he wants us to have pleasures.
Agreed, but discernment is needed. Sin can sometimes be pleasurable (I speak generally here, not just about food) - but it doesn't stay pleasurable and it leads to wickedness. This by no way means that all pleasure is sinful. Again, the lie.
