Sinking Feeling Illusion by Bovril

Do you know that “sinking feeling“, when you feel like everything you do is unimportant, that you sink deeper and deeper, and that everyone else is bigger and more important? At some point in your life, you probably felt this way. Apparently Bovril prevents this “sinking feeling”. Only question I ask you, what the heck is Bovril? Never heard of it. Is it some sort of alcohol? Hehe… Help me solve this mystery, and in the mean time – enjoy this poster! Everything is explained via text printed on the poster itself, but probably you already saw dozen of similar illusions on this site, and know the procedure. If not, be sure to check “relative sizes category” (footer), and you’ll understand this one completely.

37 Replies to “Sinking Feeling Illusion by Bovril”

    1. i see the illusion. the cows are the same size! its about perspective..something…i forgot

  1. No, Bovril is not alcoholic. It’s a salty meat extract that can be spread on toast (like Marmite), but is often made into a hot drink by adding boiling water. It’s a fairly traditional drink at football games, at least in Scotland.

  2. Nice illusion! And bovril is just beef broth concentrate. You make soup with it or cook with it. It’s very salty.

  3. Bovril was first invented to be used as army rations. A factory got an order to make a large amount of canned beef for an army, but there was not enough beef to fullfill the order. They came up with this instead. Easier to carry than tinned beef too.
    Later it was used by the general public as stock cubes.
    At the time of the BSE scare the beef got (temporary) replaced by yeast extract.

    I just read about this in Crystals book “By hook or by crook”

  4. I will personally vote for Bovril! There’s nothing like it on a cold day… either as a drink or on toast. Gorgeous!

  5. Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick, salty meat extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston and sold in a distinctive, bulbous jar. It is made in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire and distributed by Unilever UK.
    Bovril can be made into a drink by diluting with hot water. It can also be used as a flavouring for soups, stews or porridge, or spread on bread, especially toast, rather like Marmite.
    The first part of the product’s name comes from Latin bos (genitive bovis) meaning “ox” or “cow”. Johnston took the -vril suffix from Bulwer-Lytton’s then-popular 1870 “lost race” novel The Coming Race, whose plot revolves around a powerful energy fluid named “Vril”.

    I found this here
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril

  6. I remember Bovril as a thick, viscous liquid in a jar, not as stock cubes. Delicious as a hot drink. I wonder if I could handle something so salty these days. I still love Vegemite, Marmite and Promite – there are some childhood things you never grow out of.

  7. yeah right!!
    they are the same size, but what about their weight, at least the brown bull seems to be heavier than the black one, you don’t think so?

  8. Uugh, meat tea… that sounds pretty nasty. I figured out the illusion pretty fast though (the black bull is the same size as the red one right??).

  9. For crying out loud, Bovril is just concentrated stock, so yes you can drink it INSTEAD of tea when you just want that warm feeling, without caffein.

  10. OK….bovril is a meat extract…(beef broth) it is served the same way as we do in the states, except that the rest of the world calls it “tea” where us americans call it “broth” either way, its the same. ive tried both, and they taste the same.

  11. I thought this illusion was interesting, so I showed it to my dad, who was on the other side of the room. He thought that the BROWN bull looked smaller. Sure enough, when I moved back to where he was, it did look like the black bull was bigger, and the brown one was smaller.
    Wierd.
    Does this work for anyone else?

  12. Wow that is very interesting I would have to say. They do look totally different but I used my pinky to measure. Awesome!

  13. “Bovril = a type of stock (eg chicken or beef)” Seems accurate the “Bovril Cubes” I use when mixed with boiling water make a GREAT gravy base!! Then thicken to taste with flour…Love your site!!!

  14. Yup, the problem is the bacground. The bulls ARE same size, but you think they are not, because the background tells you the bull on the left is behing the black bull. That’s the trick ;)

  15. The two bulls are drawn the same size, but the brown one is drawn farther away, so because things get smaller the farther away they get, logic tells us that the brown one is bigger to compensate for the distance

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