Eating popcorn disrupts film advertising

Eating popcorn in the cinema makes people immune to film advertising, according to researchers from Cologne University.

The research, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, claims that chewing popcorn interrupts our ‘inner speech’ – when our lips and the tongue automatically simulate the pronunciation of a new name when we first hear it – which is what makes advertising so impactful.

To carry out the study, 96 people were invited to the cinema to watch a film preceded by a series of adverts – half were given popcorn, and half went without.

The results showed that the adverts had no impact on those that ate popcorn throughout, while the other half showed positive psychological responses.

Sascha Topolinski, a researcher from the study, said that the finding suggests that selling confectionary in cinemas undermines advertising effects, thus contradicting 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,” he said.