The Impact of Nigerian Cultural Elements on the Design of Print Media Ads

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of Nigerian cultural elements on the design of print advertisements and the effectiveness of those elements in inducing product patronage. Culture plays an important role in any communication setting, including advertising. It is in recognition of this important fact, that this study was undertaken. The content analysis and survey research methods were used as design, while data were gathered using the questionnaire and observation as tools. The purposive sampling method was adopted to select twenty- five (25) advertisements and two hundred and fifty- nine (259) respondents from the population of Port Harcourt urban. Simple percentages were used to analyse the data from the survey. Two hypotheses were tested using the Spearman Rank Order and the Chi-square test. Findings show that Nigerian cultural elements were used in the design of the advertisements. These cultural elements were informative and persuasive enough to enhance product patronage as people believed them to be original and indigenous. The study concludes that communication of information about products, services or ideas, could be improved if the advertisers applied these cultural elements in the design of their advertisements. Thus for better advertisement copies, Nigerian advertisers and advertising agencies must understand the communicative values of cultural elements and endeavour to use them in the designing of advertisements.