To support the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, advertising practitioners must be able to curtail irresponsible messaging and understand that the society is in need of sanity.
The Assistant Director of Media & Publicity to All People’s Congress Presidential Campaign Committee in the last general election, Otunba Abiodun Ajiboye has charged advertising professionals to curtail irresponsible messaging and should also understand that the society is in need of sanity.
He gave the charge during the Induction of advertising fellows by the Advertising Regulatroy Council of Nigeria (ARCON) held recently at Sheraton Hotels & Tower, Lagos.
According to Otunba Ajiboye who also was inducted as fellow of the profession, “Primarily we should direct our advertising practice and practitioners to messages and messaging of hope whereby the Nigeria man needs what we called the Nigerian character. Without a cultural identity there cannot be national identity. Without a national identity, there cannot be a national character.
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“Without a national character we can’t have acceptable social behavior of the citizens of a country. That is why advertising becomes important as a vehicle to drive home this kind of messaging.
On public expectations from the fellow of advertising, he said: “Being a fellow is a recognition in the advertising practice. So if they say today you are being conferred into the fellowship cadre, or inducted into the fellowship cadre, it simply means that you have come to be recognized as a practitioner of that industry. So it is a very gratifying development. We are happy about it. I am happy about it.
“For example, i have been practicing advertising for upward of 30 years, what that means is that I will continue with the practice more diligently, put in my best to ensure that the pride of advertising never diminishes. He asserted.
“There must be strong and stringent regulations within the industry for us to move ahead. And that has been captured in the Act of 2022 whereby it has given impetus to virile practice, good practice and reasonable practice. That is what we expect, advertising is a profession that requires you to develop yourself because you are supposed to know something about everything. If you know something about everything means you have to keep learning.
“Advertising is different from what we used to know it as. Advertising has become a social factor whereby advertising ideas fly on the social media now. That gives advertising practitioners a bigger role to ensure that whatever comes on stream in the form of messaging or advertising concept must be properly regulated so as not to cause a situation of wishy washy messaging.
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“There must be strong and stringent regulations within the industry for us to move ahead. And that has been captured in the Act of 2022 whereby it has given impetus to virile practice, good practice and reasonable practice.
“That is what we expect, advertising is a profession that requires you to develop yourself because you are supposed to know something about everything. If you know something about everything means you have to keep learning.
“When we started advertising there were no computers. We didn’t have computers. We were doing cut and paste, all of that. But now if you have a very good phone you can practice advertising as long as you have the knowledge. “Therefore, the society need to be made more diligent through the practice of advertising . Everybody should be taught and told to imbibe a good sense of responsibility in the kind of messaging they dish out to the society. It is becoming very crucial because it is affecting our daily lives. He added.