THE IMPACT OF 2015 POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT ON ELECTORATE VOTING BEHAVIORAL IN IKOT EKPENE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

THE IMPACT OF 2015 POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT ON ELECTORATE VOTING BEHAVIORAL IN IKOT EKPENE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

A close look at old pictures of buses in the 19^th century London quickly brings to mind the influence of advertising of products that are still famous today. As a proof of the effectiveness of advertising, some 19^th century advertisements are still with us today. Pictures of products such as Coca-Cola, Guinness, Beecham, Cadbury and lever brothers reveal that these companies constantly made use of advertising campaigns to bring these products to the consumers, and these campaigns worked greatly to boost the sale of these products to the consumers, and these campaigns worked greatly to boost the sale of these products. Even today, producers and distributors depend on advertising to sell their products.  Without advertisements, buyers would not know about the existence of products and services and continue to remember them. Consequently, the modern industrialized world may collapse (Jefkin 2006).    If factor output is to be maintained profitably, political messages understood and internalized and economic policies interpreted, advertising must continue to be used in the right proportion. Jefkin (2007) argues that “mass production requires mass consumption, which in turn requires advertising to the mass market through the mass media”.

Apart from products, ideas and services also need to be advertised for acceptance. Such ideas could be economic or political. Hence, candidates for election into different positions, at different levels in all countries of the world, spend a fortune to sell themselves to the electorate.

The case of the 2015 election in Nigeria amplifies a situation that different political parities in the race for political power made extensive use of advertising to sell their different political parties and candidates to the electorate. The implication of the above statement is that political parties may have had their chances enhanced through advertising messages persuading the electorate to vote for their parties or failed in realizing their goal because they ignored this or did not do it right way.  However, the process of this message delivery is a complex one. Some of the questions that may readily come up are: were these advertising messages properly delivered? Were they properly understood? Were they completely accepted as truth? And were they able to influence the voting behavior of the electorate, who the message where meant for? It is in the light of the above that the study examined the influence of political advertising on the voting pattern of the Nigerian electorate, using the 2015 general elections in Ikot Ekpene as a case study.

• Statement of the Problem

During the election in Ikot Ekpene, as in other parts of Nigeria, political parties made use of advertising to sell their parties and the candidates on their platforms. That advertising was delivered does not necessarily mean that it was received, nor does it imply that it was understood and accepted as truthful, such that it actually influenced the behavior of the electorate in Ikot Ekpene during the 2015 elections or were there intervening variables in the communication process? It is in the light of the above that the study decided to investigate the influence of political advertising on patterns of voting in the 2015 election in Ikot Ekpene local government.

• Objectives of the Study

The objectives to which this study focused were to:

1. find out to what extent the electorate in Ikot Ekpene local government area are exposed to political advertising
2. find out through which media is the electorate in Ikot Ekpene local government area are exposed to political advertising.
3. find out to what extent is the electorate influenced by

political advertising in its voting election

4. find out what are the factors that militated against effective political advertisement in Ikot Ekpene Local government area.

• Research Questions

This study was based on the following research questions:

1. To what extent is the electorate in Ikot Ekpene local government are exposed to political advertising?
2. Through which media is the electorate in Ikot Ekpene exposed to political advertising?