Since various mass media began reporting on the practice in the mid-1990s – often as a critical commentary on how unhealthy the Scottish diet was[1] – the popularity of the dish has spread.

[3][4] It received rapidly escalating media attention after Aberdeen Evening Express writer Alastair Dalton reported on 23 August 1995, "HOT chocolate has become this summer's sizzler in Stonehaven chip shop.

On the fifth day, Keith Chegwin performed taste tests on The Big Breakfast TV programme and the story was covered by the BBC World Service.

[9] After the food was mentioned in 2004 by Jay Leno on NBC's Tonight Show in the United States,[6][7] The Lancet commissioned the University of Dundee to validate the association between Scotland and the deep-fried Mars bar.

Since the Daily Record described it as "Scotland's craziest takeaway" in August 1995,[6][7] the deep-fried Mars bar has become a symbol for ill health, obesity and high-fat diets.

[6][13] In a 2012 interview, Glasgow restaurateur John Quigley felt that Scotland had been trying to "shake off" its unhealthy image for 20 years, since the media coverage of the deep-fried Mars bar.