Copyright businessday
On the streets, stereotyping, labeling, and profiling of individuals or ethnic groups are informal, silly, and playful, often seen as part of everyday banter. But when such unsubstantiated tendencies find their way into official or corporate spaces—especially through the actions of educated Nigerians and the deliberate reinforcement of these ideas in advertisements—it raises a serious national concern. This was the case with the controversial Bokku advert, which elevated a street slang into mainstream national conversation, sparking widespread debate. Bokku, in its attempt to create traction to its supermarket across Nigeria featured a lady in an advert who was shopping food items. While shopping, the lady made a soliloquy of “buying beans and garri Ijebu at Bokku without Omo Igbo cheating me.” The advert has raised dust with industry players describing the copy as unacceptable, improper and offensive. Industry observers summed up that the campaign “has cast an entire tribe as fraudulent businessmen and women who cheat in transactions”. Advertising professional who described the advert as in bad taste, labelled the advert as lacking in deep thinking. Perhaps, “they didn’t think through the concept. What they did was to import street slang without considering its implication in official circles”. Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, ARCON said the advert was not submitted for approval. The advert professional who believed that “no brand will consciously try to hurt a section of a country in an advert message” wondered the quality of copy writers who developed the work as there was no due diligence in the work. Lolu Akinwunmi, Group CEO, Prima Garnet, Nigeria, a world-class advertising and marketing communication group who spotted the error in the advert raised alarm. “Why on earth would Bokku run such an inappropriate ad? I hope Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria ARCON will investigate and do the needful”. Immediately this was drawn to the attention of Lekan Fadolapo, DG of ARCON who has fought such inappropriate adverts in the past, he jumped into action, warning against the advert. “The attention of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has been drawn to the exposure of unapproved and offensive Bokku Supermarket advertisement, which unlawfully instigates ethnicity and sectional prejudices, denigrating a Nigerian ethnic nationality and bringing them into public contempt and ridicule which is against the Federal Government’s policy of national unity and peaceful co-existence”. Lekan said “this and several other advertisements of Bokku supermarket circulating on social media were not submitted, vetted or approved for exposure by the Advertising Standards Panel in line with the Nigerian advertising law. He promised that ARCON is committed to taking all necessary steps including legal actions to sanction the platform owners, advertisers, and agencies which engage in the exposure of unapproved advertisements in line with the Nigerian advertising law. “A special monitoring and enforcement task force has been mandated to track all unapproved advertisements across media platforms exposed to the Nigerian market. Lekan commended Nigerians who notify ARCON of gross violation of advertising ethics promising that as gatekeepers, “ARCON will continue to work towards building a more decent and consumer- protective advertising environment in Nigeria”.
