CRITICAL ASSESSMENT AND REDESIGN OF THE BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO POSTER DESIGNS IN NIGERIA
ABSRACT
An Assessment and Redesign of the British American Tobacco Poster Designs in Nigeria: The British America Tobacco (BAT) is an international company that operates domestically in Nigeria but whose advertising posters seem to differ in content from the conventional advertisement that consumers are used to or familiar with and which to large extent, negate graphic communication practices. The posters under survey which hitherto fall within the ambit of three years (2009-2012) have their visual contents codified to make the messages incomprehensible. The research therefore set out to investigate the contentious unconventional style of BAT posters to find out whether the average consumer to whom the advertisements are directed, understands the message delivery. Data were collected based on purposive and cluster sampling technique with the respondents drawn from the general public. Questionnaire and interview methods of collecting data were employed using Hopkins
(1980) statistical table and Adogbo‟s (2009) statistical formula to summarise the result. Quantitative and qualitative descriptive analyses were adopted to explain the findings and to draw up conclusions. The findings from the respondents prompted the redesign of the sampled BAT advertising posters based on their observation wherein, the identified problems were eliminated to improve the visual quality of the message delivery. The redesigned posters were subjected to a survey. Findings showed that, there was no difference between the message delivery and the consumers understanding of the message of the redesigned BAT posters. This implies that, the message deliveries were presented comprehensibly to be understood without necessarily having to temper with the graphic norms. Conclusively, it was established that, illustration that negates graphic communication norms tends to be misleading and deceptive.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â INTRODUCTION
Advertising theories propounded by experts in the field of graphic design and advertising have in many ways unified the presentation of the visual content of product advertisement (advert). For example, Hanno‟s theory of visual communication laid emphasis on product display against text. The researcher on the other hand, observed that there is something unconventional about British America Tobacco (BAT) poster designs which negates to a very large extent Hanno‟s theory. The study therefore investigated the adoption of unconventional approach in advertising BAT products, with a view to finding out how effective these adverts were and how the target audience were able to decode their messages.
