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- No of Pages: 61

- No of Chapters: 5

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Introduction:

Abstract

This study is a survey on Television Tobacco Adverts and its influence on Teenage Smoking habit. It uses the Youths in Owerri Municipality in Imo State of Nigeria as its sample.



The study uses the questionnaire as a survey method for the collection of data from the sample and population. The sample percentage model is adopted in vesting collected data.



The research reveals that Television Tobacco adverts reinforces the habit of youths towards tobacco. It shows that a combination of TV, Interpersonal and Mass Communication, Influence group activities tremendously.

Table of Content

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Introduction

INTRODUCTION



The successful marketing of a product starts with the determination of consumers’ needs and ends with the satisfaction of such needs. To satisfy these needs, the consumers must know about the products’ existence in the market.



This is made possible via adverts. According to Marshal Muluhan, the medium is the message?. Therefore every advertise must decide on where to place its advertisements. The alternatives are the adverts media, the means by which the Message is Communicated to the target audience. This “media selection” decision is related to the target audience, type of product, nature of the message, campaign objectives, available budget and the cost of the alternative media: Erie, Kerin, Steven and Rudelius (pg. 535). In any case, the advertise chooses the media that will maximize exposure and minimize cost.



Among the media, the TV exercises the greatest impact (Pfau et al 1990). This impact is as a result of its audio-visual quality. This quality distinguishes it from other media. An earlier and perhaps more persuasive influence on children’s development is TV. In the words of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch “Persuasion is the only true intellectual process”.



By the age of sixteen (16), the average child has spent more time watching television than attending school: E Mavis and Parke (Pg. 145).



Television affects children not only through the programmes that they watch but also by the commercials and adverts that accompany television programmes: Huston et al (1992). Harlow Gale considered adverts an entirely new field for psychological work and one of great and increasing importance.



Mass Communication Media, Supported by adverts are also accused of satiating the public with the most superficial information and entertainment. In doing this, it is said that they have encouraged what is popular rather, than what is good. And they have stressed material rather than spiritual and cultural values. And television is the medium most frequently cited: Wright, Warner, and Zeigler.



On the average, children watch nearly 20,000 television commercials each year: He Herington and Ross (p9. 526). As George Gerbner, a prominent TV researcher notes” The more time one spends living in the world of TV, the more likely one is to report perceptions of social reality which can be traced to TV’S representation of life and society. As Greyserso well puts it, of all the social issues involving adverts, the broadcast has to do with its impact on life styles. Hence exposure to aggressive models on air can increase children’s subsequent aggressive behavior Parke and Slaby 1983, Perry 1990.





BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY



Tobacco smoking is an age long habit which has attracted a lot of criticisms due to its consequences on health. Studies also indicate that most teenagers, who smoke, suffer health and increased risk of heart attacks: The Guardian New Paper Nov. 8, 2001.



The World Health Organization (W.H.O) is worried by the spate of infections suffered by smokers. It has therefore made it mandatory for cigarette manufacturers to ass health warnings to their advertisements such as “smokers are liable to die young”. The warning is seen on every packet of cigarette adverts message.



However, these warnings seem not to be assimilated by habitual smokers. The manufacturers themselves are unrelenting in formulating new strategies aimed at enhancing the appeal of their adverts themes.



Teenagers are often influenced by celebrities, environment and fashion. Some equally are influenced by sex appeals. Sex appeals suggest to the audience that the product will increase the attractiveness of the user to the opposite sex: Robert A. Baron and Donn Byrne.



All the same, one might wish to know the relationship between cigarette advertisement on television and smoking habits in teenagers. Also, one would like to know other factors that interplay with this relationship. These form the focus of the study.