Willemijn van Dolen | Eating popcorn keeps advertising from getting a hold on you
Eating popcorn makes you immune to the effects of advertising in the cinema, writes columnist Willemijn van Dolen. Yes, you read it right: popcorn as an ad-blocker. “The researchers tip marketers to avoid selling popcorn before the main film when promoting a new brand.”
Popcorn distracts when watching a film, I wrote last time. When popcorn is in sight, we imagine what it would be like to eat it and it distracts us from the film. As a result, we are less involved and enjoy watching the film.
A tip from the researchers was to eat the snack before the film starts when visiting a cinema to avoid negatively affecting that experience. During the commercial, in other words. But the popcorn effect appears to go beyond the movie experience: it also affects advertisements. In fact, other research shows that chewing makes us more desensitised to cinema advertising. And advertisers are probably less happy about that.
Before or after the film
One of the reasons why advertisements cause us to recognise and remember brand names is that our lips and tongue unconsciously mimic the pronunciation of a new brand name when we hear it for the first time. Every time we encounter the name again, our mouth unconsciously practices its pronunciation. This is also known as ‘inner speech’. This process is disrupted when we start chewing, so the repetition effect does not take place. The study showed that ads had no effect on viewers who had chewed popcorn, while non-chewers showed reactions to the products from the ads.
Conclusion: eating popcorn makes visitors of the cinema immune to the effects of advertising. The researchers therefore tip marketers to consider avoiding selling popcorn before the main film when promoting a new brand. OK, so not before the film, not during, so then after the film?
It just depends on how you look at it. For film lovers who don’t like being influenced by advertising, I would say: just eat popcorn before the main film. You do enjoy the adverts, they do not penetrate your brain, and afterwards you also enjoy the film, with your full attention. Popcorn as an ad-blocker, who would have thought.
