Question: Research featured in the Journal of Consumer Psychology would seem to suggest that chewing gum or eating makes a consumer completely immune to the effects of advertising. Most advertising relies on fairly simple features, such as a powerful and memorable message or, in many cases, by repeating the advertisement so that the full effects of the mere exposure phenomenon work on the audience. Eating, it would seem, interrupts both of these effects. The advertisement reaches our minds by pre-vocalising the message. We then silently articulate the message to ourselves. The mechanics of chewing something means that the individual creates oral-motor interference.
There are important messages for advertisers to learn if this is truly the case-they should avoid advertising when they know that people might be eating. They should also avoid advertising in social situations; the audience might not be paying attention and they might be eating too.166 The other important message is to avoid advertising around digital content. The audience is pre-vocalizing the content they are interested in and will ignore banner advertisements. The only way advertising will work in these cases is to interrupt the digital content. In your view, does this mean that the concept of mere exposure is no longer applicable as a concept and practice? What does this mean for advertising?