Eating popcorn in the cinema may be irritating not just for fellow movie goers, but for advertisers: a group of researchers from Cologne University has concluded that chewing makes us immune to filmadvertising.
The reason why adverts manage to imprint brand names on our brains is that our lips and the tongue automatically simulate the pronunciation of a new name when we first hear it. Every time we re-encounter the name, our mouth subconsciously practises its pronunciation.
However, according to the study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, this "inner speech" can be disturbed by chewing, rendering the repetition effect redundant.
For their experiment, the researchers invited a group of 96 people to a cinema to watch a movie preceded by a series of adverts. Half of the participants were given free popcorn throughout the session, the other half only received a small sugar cube which immediately dissolved in their mouths.
A test at the end of the screening showed that the adverts had left no effect on those viewers who had chewed their way through popcorn throughout, while the other participants showed positive psychological responses to the products they had encountered in the ads.
"The mundane activity of eating popcorn made participants immune to the pervasive effects of advertising," said Sascha Topolinski, one of the researchers.
He goes as far as implying that his research may spell the end of the traditional popcorn machine in cinema foyers. "This finding suggests that selling candy in cinemas actually undermines advertising effects, which contradicts present marketing strategies. In the future, when promoting a novel brand, advertising clients might consider trying to prevent candy being sold before the main movie."
在影院吃爆米花不仅会惹恼部分观影者，也让广告商不大乐意。科隆大学的一个研究小组得出结论，咀嚼让人对电影广告免疫。
广告之所以可以让我们记住品牌名称，是因为当我们第一次听到新名字时，会自动念出这个名字。我们再遇到这个品牌名字的话，潜意识中嘴巴就会练习这个发音。
但是，根据《消费心理月刊》发表的一份研究，咀嚼会打断这种“内心独白”，让重复的效果变得多余。
在实验中，研究人员邀请96名实验对象去影院观看一部在开头播放一组广告的电影，从头到尾提供给其中一半人免费爆米花，而另一半人只得到一小块入口即化的方糖。
放映结束后进行的测试显示，那些嚼爆米花的观众对这组广告完全没印象，而其他那些观众却对广告中的产品产生了积极的心理反应。
研究人员Sascha Topolinski说：“吃爆米花这样一个普通的行为让我们的实验对象抵挡了广告的渗透作用。”
他还暗示，他的实验宣告了影院大厅传统爆米花机的末日。“这项发现表明，在影院卖糖果实际上破坏了广告的效果，这与现行的市场策略相悖。未来，在宣传新品牌时，广告客户可能会考虑停止在重要电影开始前销售糖果。”