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GERMANY — Eating popcorn doesn't just keep your taste buds happy while watching a movie, it shields you from the influences of advertising, according to a new study.
Chomping down on popcorn interrupts the process advertisers tap into for developing brand name recognition, a study by the University of Cologne found.
"The mundane activity of eating popcorn made participants immune to the pervasive effects of advertising," researcher Sascha Topolinski told The Guardian.
Repetition is a key part of remembering a new name, and when we hear a new brand we form the pronunciation with our mouth and lips without even being aware of it, according to a press release.
Popcorn's advertising-blocking power comes from the fact that it disrupts the repetition process before it finishes. If the mouth is occupied with something else, the process of "inner speech" doesn't finish and the repetition effect vanishes, according to the press release.
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Researchers invited participants to real movie theaters and showed them a block of commercials and movie, according to the study. Half of them were given popcorn to snack on while the other half were given a quick-dissolving sugar cube. They conducted the study twice.
The first time they asked which products participants liked a week after the viewing, and while those who ate sugar cubes showed positive physiological responses of familiarity for advertised products, those who ate popcorn showed no signs of the advertising, the study said.
Participants were given cash to spend in the second round and had the option to spend their money on one of six skin lotions and charities. All of the companies were fictional, but people who ate sugar were more likely to choose the advertised products than their popcorn-eating counterparts.
Topolinkski said their findings might incentivize advertisers to pressure movie theaters into halting concession stand sales.
"This finding suggests that selling candy in cinemas actually undermines advertising effects, which contradicts present marketing strategies," he said. "In the future, when promoting a novel brand, advertising clients might consider trying to prevent candy being sold before the main movie."
The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
