Let's not go to the lobby? A study by the University of Cologne has found chewing popcorn while watching ads could actually be sabotaging brand recall. It's all a hot, buttery mess.
According to the report, Popcorn in the Cinema: Oral Interference Sabotages Advertising Effects, the chewing action interferes with the brain's 'inner speech' that occurs whenever we encounter a new or novel name such as Google or Yahoo.
"This happens covertly, that is, without our awareness and without actual mouth movements," the report says. "During inner speech, the brain attempts to utter the novel name. When names are presented repeatedly, this articulation simulation is trained and thus runs more easily for repeated compared to novel names.
"Crucially, if this inner speech is disturbed, for instance during chewing gum or whispering another word, the articulation of words cannot be trained and the repetition effect vanishes. People who are chewing something are immune to word repetition, they do not prefer familiar words over novel ones."
The report authors conducted two field studies in the cinema environment, inviting real consumers to watch a block of commercials and a movie, with one group eating popcorn during the commercials and one given a small sugar cube.
In the first study, the participants were presented with images of products one week after the cinema session, half of which had been advertised. Those who received only the sugar cube demonstrated a "clear advertising effect", preferring the advertised products and showing "positive physiological responses" of familiarity with the products.
Those who had eaten popcorn while watching the commercials showed no such effect. "The mundane activity of eating popcorn made participants immune to the pervasive effects of advertising," the researchers said.
The second study was much the same, except participants were asked for real consumer choices one week later, having been given a small amount of money to buy a skin lotion and donate to charity – six different lotions and six charities, of which three of each had been advertised in the cinema session.
Participants who had eaten the sugar cube chose the advertised products and charities more often, while the popcorn-eaters did not.
“This finding suggests that selling candy in movie theatres actually undermines advertising effects, which contradicts present marketing strategies," the authors said. "In the future, when promoting a novel brand, advertising clients might consider trying to prevent candy being sold before the main movie to ensure the positive outcome of their marketing."
Good luck with that.
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