Eating popcorn makes ads less effective (17th October, 2013)

BEFORE READING 

MOVIES: Rank these!!  Put the best things about cinemas at the top.

• popcorn   • the seats   • the foyer   • the big screen

• the dark   • being in an audience   • the sound   • the trailers

1. SYNONYM MATCH:Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	effective	a.	restricted
2	conclusion	b.	evaluate
3.	interrupted	c.	resistant
4.	interferes with	d.	opinion
5.	awareness	e.	predicament
6.	rate	f.	disrupts
7.	mundane	g.	useful
8.	immune	h.	hike
9.	dilemma	i.	realisation
10.	mark-up	j.	boring

The advertising people see while at the movies is less effective when audiences eat popcorn. This is the conclusion of a newly-published study from Germany's Cologne University. According to researchers, people remember the names of new brands or products by silently pronouncing them in their brains. However, with a mouth full of popcorn, this process is interrupted. The report is titled "Popcorn in the Cinema: Oral Interference Sabotages Advertising Effects". It describes how the chewing action interferes with the brain's "inner speech" that operates whenever we come across a new name. Researchers say: "This happens covertly, that is, without our awareness."

Researcher Sascha Topolinski invited 96 people to watch a movie. Half of the group was given popcorn, while the rest received a small sugar cube. A week later, the participants were asked to rate a series of products, including some of those they had seen adverts for during the movie. The sugar cube group remembered a lot more of the product names than those who ate popcorn. Mr Topolinski said: "The mundane activity of eating popcorn made participants immune to the pervasive effects of advertising." He added: "This finding suggests that selling candy in cinemas actually undermines advertising." This presents cinema owners with a dilemma. There is usually a 900% mark-up on popcorn sold in movie theatres.

COMPREHENSION 

1. TRUE / FALSE:Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	A study is about ads before movies on TV while people eat popcorn.	T / F
b.	A report says we remember names by pronouncing them in our brain.	T / F
c.	The report said only popcorn stops us remembering names.	T / F
d.	Chewing may stop us remembering new names.	T / F
e.	96 people ate popcorn and did a memory recall test for brand names.	T / F
f.	The report said eating sugar cubes helps us remember names.	T / F
g.	Researchers said eating popcorn makes us immune to advertising.	T / F
h.	Popcorn costing the cinema $1 can be sold to moviegoers for $9.	T / F