CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Children today are advanced in many ways when they are compared to children in the past generations. One of the ways of their advancement is traceable to their exposure to audio-visual messages in television and the internet. However, these messages contribute to moulding a child.
Production is said to be the creation of goods and services and has often been said to be incomplete without getting to the final consumer. However, it is one thing to produce and also another thing for the product to be accepted by the consumer. In the process of trying to make the goods acceptable in the market and for the producers to remain in the market, the producers do everything possible for the consumer to know about the existence of their product, place of purchase, its uses, availability and advantages, hence the concept of advertising.
Advertising today has become a major part of organisations and businesses, it enables marketing communication. Advertising has played major roles in organisations most of which cannot be over emphasized. Advertising has changed our world, most advertisements play with our thoughts and emotions. Advertising is not an economic activity but it articulates different ideas, attitudes and values which shape our social life and consumption pattern.
Advertising is one of the most important tools organisations use to direct persuasive messages to target buyers and publics. It presents the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the lowest possible cost Bakare (2008:3).
According to Nwogbunyama (2008:3) “advertising is the use of paid for space in a publication, or time in a television, radio or cinemas, usually as a means of persuading people to take a particular course of action or to reach a point of view. It may also be taken to include posters and outdoor advertising”. Advertising is such a strong influence in our society that it determines our needs, what we care about, how we raise our children, what our interests are etc.
In this light, advertising has over the years used children as a tool to persuade consumers into buying a product. However, one important point to note about advertising is that it is a planned communication. According to Arens(2008:7) cited in Asemah (2011) “advertising is the structured and composed non-personal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products, services and ideas by identified sponsors, through various mass media”. Advertising describes or draw attention to a product, service or event in a medium in order to promote sales or attendance.
Dominick (2007:321) cited in Asemah (2011) says that advertising is any form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services, usually paid for by an identified sponsor. However, some people argue that the use of models in advertising enhances advertising messages, message recall and brand recognition as well as helping to create positive attitudes towards the brand and creating a personality for the brand. It is important to note that advertising is usually paid for and not free and it is also paid for by an identifiable sponsor, one who can be held responsible. The sponsor can be an organization or an individual.