Abstract:
This study was aimed at evaluating the effects of advertising on the level of acceptance of HIV/AIDS counselling and testing among adolescents in Abia state. Thus, efforts were geared towards: investigating the level of awareness of HIV/AIDS advertising campaign among the adolescents, evaluating the appropriateness of the message contents in reaching the adolescents, examining the degree of responsiveness of the adolescents to the messages, and lastly, identifying the inhibiting factors to the acceptance of HIV/AIDS status verification test. Primary data were collected from the population of study. Descriptive research design was adopted for this study. Also information about the population of the study was collected through the instrument of questionnaire and observation. Cluster sampling technique was adopted in triangulation with convenience sampling technique in selecting the sample units. Sample size of 400 was statistically determined from a population of 687,918 adolescents in Abia state. Data collected from the sample units were used in testing the formulated hypotheses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Wilcoxon Signed Ranked Test, Factor Analysi and Chi-Square Test were the statistical tools used in data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the adolescents were highly communicated about the issue of HIV/AIDS counselling and testing. Also the message contents of the advertising campaign only created appreciable degree of awareness among the adolescents but did not arouse their interest above the threshold of that awareness. This was because the degree of responsiveness of the adolescents to the HIV/AIDS campaign was found inadequate. These low responses to the campaign were discovered to anchor on some inhibiting factors which were mainly psychological and sociological. Consequent upon these findings, the following recommendations are made: There is urgent need to shift advertising message and objectives from awareness creation to persuasive approach. Also advertising campaign should be tailored to suit the individual and societal values and norms; this is a way of addressing the inhibiting factors. Also the promoters of the campaign should consider segmenting the aggregate market into age group and then design advertisement appeals that suit each of the segments. Adopting integrated marketing communications can also improve campaign efficiency.
