+441518081136Exposure of African youths to imagery of Addictive Tobacco in musical videos: A five years retrospective review
2nd International Conference on Addiction Research and Therapy
May 13-14, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
Adeosun Abayomi
Lighthouse Global Health Initiative, Nigeria
Scientific Tracks Abstracts : J Psychol Cognition
Abstract:
Aim: Tobacco advertisement has been banned in mainstream
media, however, contents endorsing smoking are still
accessible to people, mostly adolescents, through uncensored
online media platforms. This research aimed at evaluating
tobacco content in Nigerian musical videos.
Method: Top 50 videos of each year from 2014 to 2018 were
reviewed independently by four researchers who checked
for parameters including: antismoking message, imagery of
male, female or group smoking, and imagery of soft-core
sexual content associated with cigarette smoking. A total of
250 videos were reviewed. The videos were sourced from
YouTube according to ratings by Africa Charts. Africa Charts
rates videos based on TV and radio airplay, record sales,
streaming platforms, social media, song and video downloads
from top African entertainment sites, as well as YouTube and
Dailymotion views.
Results: About 36 (14.40%) and 9 (3.6%) videos, with over
397 million combined views had imagery of male and female
smoking respectively. Videos containing male smoking
imagery increased by 150% between 2014 and 2018. Three
(1.2%) videos had imagery of smoking associated with sex
appeal while 8 (3.2%) videos contained people smoking in
groups. Only 2 videos (0.8%) with about 16 million views
contained antitobacco smoking message. A female artiste
featured smoking imagery the most.
Conclusion: Smoking imagery is contained in few Nigerian
musical videos; however, its appearance is on the increase.
Given the wide acceptance of Nigerian music among African
youths, it may be necessary to regulate smoking imagery
content of the musical videos to contain its impact on the
youths, who are easily influenced by their celebrity heroes.
Biography:
Adeosun Abayomi is a pharmacist and a public health specialist. His research works span tobacco cessation, global health security, and reproductive health. He is the director of Strategy and Communication for Lighthouse Global Health Initiative. He is presently on a Diploma Course in Basel, Switzerland.
E-mail: aadeosun@lghi.org
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