ABSTRACT
The
research examines the influence of television cigarettes advertisement on the
smoking habits of youth in Nigeria with a case study of University of Uyo
undergraduates. It was established that television been an audio-visual
platform has the capacity to influence the behaviour of people. Similarly,
people tend to get motivated and persuaded by what they watch on television
according to George Garbner. The research use quantitative design with survey
research method, one hundred (100) copies of questionnaire were administered to
respondents within Uniuyo campus out of which ninety (90) copies were
retrieved. The data were analyzed and interpreted using the table, frequency
and percentage method. Findings show that cigarette/tobacco advertisement
influence the smoking habit among youth to some extent and despite the various campaigns on the effect of tobaccos yet many
of youth shun the health implications of smoking. It was recommended that all
agencies that are saddled with the responsibility to vet, censor and control
advertising messages should see their role as crucial to human development and
should not because of revenue to be gained from such advert use any advert that
can put society into dangers.
