As a media and communication student, it is engraved in the very core of my studies that advertisements, often overlooked for their humour and exaggerations, reveal the thought process, needs and wants of a society. If you want to know how a community or country functions mentally and to also have a fair idea of their hierarchy of needs, pay close attention to their advertising process, especially on radio and television.
Being an avid Ghanaian media consumer since I have been alive, there is enough experience on my side to boldly say that comedy is to a Ghanaian as cheese is to a mouse but that was when I was younger. As I got older, the more mentally adept I got and the sweet freedom from the shackles of over protection came, another mouse trap revealed itself and voila!
The mattress games pardon my Ghanaian̶ sex, it was. For a society bound in conservatism, religion, pretentiousness and vagueness, sex is the least advertising technique or marketing tool I would expect advertisers to use, but it turns out repetition, emotional appeal, snob appeal and scale, are not as popular as humour, celebrity endorsements and sex appeal, with sex appeal reigning supreme among the big three of Ghanaian advertising.
Drinks and Lottery advertisements are shrouded with sexual metaphors and Imagery, which often at times, can be understood by children̶ the same ones whose eyes are covered when a prince and princess in a fairytale cartoon kiss. The advertising technique is not the only problem or the cracks in the mirror that reveal the flaws of the Ghanaian society, but the products being advertised themselves.
Netizens often say we all died in 2020 and are in hell, and I could not agree more! The lack of statistics in Ghana is a problem but trust me when I say that the advertising of Viagra and other sexual enhancing drugs have increased tenfold since 2020 and has saturated the television and radio space of the media.
The products themselves, do not annoy me as much as the explicit sexual commentary that go along with their advertising. What happened to the prided Ghanaian modesty with the not-too-sudden bombardment of sexual content in our media?
It is almost as if we are hypocritically conservative and somehow promiscuous with a dash of slyness. Not only do our adverts and preferred advertising techniques reveal the average Ghanaian’s obsession with sex but also their dependency on it, which stems from poverty.
With about 23% of Ghanaians living in abject poverty, sex is the only way for them experience pleasure dopamine and serotonin without any costs involved, often leading to them being preyed upon by advertisers and herbal medicine manufacturers for revenue quite the profitable venture I must admit. The rise of unemployment has also given a lot of people ample time to sexually explore since their hands are idle, ever increasing the demand on anything sex related.
Taking a closer look at statistics, we realize that developed, thriving nations often have lower birth rates and strict advertising regulations as compared to underdeveloped or developing countries who have the exact opposite. So, there’s the math, the more poverty and unemployment rise, the more people will resort to sex as a cheaper and readily available source of pleasure and relief, increasing the demand of sexual enhancement drugs and the over saturation of sexual content in our media space, especially in advertising and the never ending cycle of it all.
Unfortunately, there is little to nothing we can do, since a lot of media houses depend on the revenue from advertising to finance their activities. The government and the National Communication Authority can do something but the question is, are they ready to put greed and politics aside to save Ghana from the sexual mania?