Advertising and Consumerism in Nigeria: A Study of Unethical Promos by Telecom Operators

Introduction

It is an accepted premise that consumers occupy a key position in business. As a popular aphorism puts it, the client is boss or king in business; without him or her, there cannot be business. “The consumer supplies the blood line that keeps the [manufacturer, producer or entrepreneur] in business and churning out more service. If the consumer is satisfied, the revenue belt increases” (Danbatta in Folarin, 2017). The plausibility of this position is further revealed by the fact that effective demand is defined as desire backed by purchasing power. In view of this, most businesses have been compelled by governmental or other relevant arbiters to regard their clients and consumers as important social entities with rights which must be respected, notably in such areas as advertising and marketing campaigns. Some of these consumer rights to be respected by businesses or advertisers in their campaigns include (i) the right to choose from different brands of goods and services, (ii) the right (for the consumer) to be informed of important facts about products and services (notably durability and side effects) and (iii) the right to be heard by businesses, to ask questions or make complaints and suggestions. Despite modern and global movements to protect consumers, issues such as harmful or exploitative advertising continue to be observable – if not rampant – in most countries (Bishop, 1997; Endong, 2015; Najeeb & Mustansar, 2005; Radio Vatican, 2015). No doubt, many observers – particularly puritanical religious schools of thought – continue to arguably view advertising as a veritable art of deception, and a mere capitalist tool aimed at spurring consumers into excessive or inordinate consumption (Radio Vatican, 2015).

In recent times, Nigerian advertisers have been resorting to such exploitative advertising campaigns in a bid to increase sales or patronage. From religious institutions (such as churches) to video film marketers, some Nigerian advertisers have, of recent, circumstantially employed questionable communications to sell their products and services. The presence of advertising and communication regulatory organizations such as the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, and Nigerian Communications Council (NCC) has not really deterred the tradition of hyperbolic or harmful advertising campaigns by manufacturers and institutions in the country.

Some of the perpetrators of these questionable forms of advertising campaigns have been telecommunication operators which, through techniques such as advertised promotions and unsolicited commercial calls and text messages, have created potential sources of nuisance to consumers, as well as opportunities to exploit. Nigerian telecom operators have, for instance, entrenched the tradition of placing these unsolicited commercial calls and text messages at odd times of the day and at a high frequency. As reviewed by Oregbemhe (2015), such approaches may be frustrating and annoying to consumers. In some cases, many of the promises made by these telecommunications operators to their subscribers in the course of their promotional campaigns have turned out to be well-organized deceptions, scams or well calculated moves to exploit subscribers (Etukodo, 2008; Monye, Umoh & Chinyere, 2014; Piwuna, 2016).

This chapter critically explores the ways in which the Nigerian telecom operators often fail to give a modicum of attention to consumer rights and the extent to which advertising regulatory bodies and other consumer protection associations/initiatives operating in the country come to term with this anti-consumer culture. The chapter is structured in three principal sections. The first section provides a conceptual definition of consumerism. The second section explores consumerism in the Nigerian telecom sector, while the last section deals with misleading advertisements and unsolicited commercial calls as forms of anti-consumer practices in the Nigerian telecom sector.