Popular ice cream brand Tip Top has lifted the lid on research showing that eating ice cream does indeed lead to more positive outcomes in day-to-day life. Inspired by London’s Institute of Psychiatry research that proved eating ice cream lights up the pleasure centre of the brain, Tip Top decided to undertake its own situational experiments to demonstrate how ice cream positively affects your brain, improves our pleasure in life and literally makes you ‘feel Tip Top’.
The cone-breaking research included a workplace productivity test and one to see if people rated a movie higher after they’d had an ice cream. In each situation, a control group and a group consuming ice cream were tested to see if eating ice cream made a noticeable, positive difference.
The tongue-in-cheek experiments, which can be viewed at www.feeltiptop.co.nz, found that a customer call centre was almost 40% more productive after eating ice cream, while ice cream-eating movie goers gave a film an average rating of 9.3 out of 10, compared with 8.8 for those who had none. That’s scientifically known as heaps better!
Using MRI technology, researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry in London proved that consuming just one spoonful of ice cream affects you in a similar way to listening to your favourite song or winning the lottery**.
“Our consumers have been telling us for years that ice cream makes them feel better,” says Minna Reinikkala, Tip Top Group Marketing Manager. “But the international research inspired us to put it to the test to see whether ice cream really can make people more generous, more productive, more open to enjoyment, or even luckier in love.”
The ‘Feel Tip Top’ scientific investigations will also extend to the wider public, as Kiwis are called upon to conduct their own social experiments involving ice cream. The company has opened the ice cream truck door by making online applications for Tip Top ice cream grants available. Consumers can receive vouchers for products to test things like whether dating goes better, whether their friends think they’re funnier or if their selfies are more popular when they eat Tip Top.
Tip Top will also be conducting fun public experiments at the Auckland Zoo in December and at the World Buskers Festival in Christchurch in January.
“We’re expecting a flood of applications. After all, New Zealanders are amongst the biggest eaters of ice cream in the world***. We can’t wait to see all the feel good that can come from eating Tip Top ice cream this summer,” says Reinikkala.
Applications for ice cream grants are now open at apps.facebook.com/FeelTipTop where consumer tester videos will also be loaded. Experiment results will be aggregated via #Feeltiptop.
**http://neurosci.co.uk/portfolio/ice-cream-makes-you-happy/. The study was run at the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, London in collaboration with Professor of Neuroimaging, Michael Brammer.
