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.
