AN ASSESSMENT TO SHOW THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BILLBOARD ADVERTISING IN KENYA
The Republic of Kenya is in East Africa. Its population of 39 million citizens is composed of different people with different culture and beliefs. It has 47 counties and each county is semi-autonomous. As the residents are varied so is Kenya’s topography. The land is made up of a long coastline, semi-arid bushes, savannah grasslands and desert landscapes.
Kenya is rated as an emerging African country. It has the largest economy in Central and East Africa. Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, is a major trade center. Kenya as a whole is seen as the center for financial, transportation and communication services for Central and Eastern African nations.
Advertising is a form of communication and statement. It is a factor in public marketing. Aside from promoting the product being advertised, it also supports mass media. The type of advertising depends on the intended target market of the advertiser. Effective advertising have been found to be through the following methods: media advertising, newspapers, journals, and periodicals, online advertising, using billboards, tourism.
[i]A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. It usually shows distinguishing illustrations and clever catchphrases.
Billboard advertisements grab the population’s awareness and generate what advertisers hope to be an unforgettable feeling and idea to the Kenyans. Billboards that are most noticeable to passengers and drivers are those billboards alongside highways. Highways usually have no other visual attraction so prominent billboards are sure to get the attention of motorists.
Kenya\s counties are starting to get large volume of billboard advertisements, particularly on those places that have a high population. Sometimes, billboards are painted and smeared on sides of buildings and other structures.
In Kenya, trees lining the roads are torn down to give way to advertising billboards. The outdoor advertising industry, with special mention to billboards. has been proliferating in Nairobi and other localities’ highways and intersections. Even street electric poles are festooned with advertisements. Powerful companies construct and put up billboards of every sizes, shapes, and forms everywhere. It imposes itself on the beauty of the nearby surroundings. It causes visual pollution.
The existing laws and policies have no effect to advertisers as local authorities are indifferent to motorists’ complaints, criticisms and protests against the use of billboards with flashing bright lights from electric or digital billboards that distracts them while driving. Yet, there are those who proclaim that these electric digital billboards provide them with additional lighting on dark highways, and it drives away driver boredom especially when driving along a highway with a monotonous landscape.
Lack of safety regulations caused some billboards to fall down and injure pedestrians and motorists. Some billboards have image statements or messages bordering on crudeness and indecency.
It contributes negatively to the mindset of the population by continuously invading their senses of constant advertisements invoking them to use their product to be complete, well, happy, and popular.
The Kenya Communications Amendment Bill 2008 is a proposal to issue licenses to advertisers, penalize offenders with heavy penalties as fines and prison sentences. It also proposes that a commission on communications be set up by the government to implement and administer the proposal.
In response, Kenya’s media industry vehemently rebuffed and refused the law due to its heavy draconian measures on advertisers. Their media cited that the penalties the bill stipulates are way too high and stiff as compared to other bills and laws of Kenya. According to them, it speaks of biased and spiteful outlook towards the media.
Granted that billboard advertising reaches a lot of the target market making it a profitable investment for business, regulations should still be present to protect the masses. Clear rules on billboard advertising should take into consideration the safety of motorists, design and construction of billboards, venue, and environmental concerns.
[i] En.wikipedia.org
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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