I saw quite a number of TV commercials and advertisements while growing up,  I’m just now starting to realize their effect in hindsight. Good advertisement doesn’t just make you love a product, it makes you strongly desire what it was advertised for.

If you grew up in Nigeria, then you’re most likely familiar with the choco Brand “Milo”, its advertisements often portrayed kids who were smarter at school, stronger, or more athletic because they had a cup of Milo every morning, this made me always request for Milo from my mother because I wanted to be the smartest and strongest kid in class, but if you think about it, Milo is just cocoa powder mixed with sugar, it’s hard to tell how this can make anyone smarter and more athletic. Another instance is the case of Maltina, the brand of malt beverage drink. Their advertisement often depicted people who automatically knew how to dance and move their bodies swiftly. I had an eagerness to learn all the cool dance steps and because of this, I would insist on only drinking Maltina at that young age.

Reflecting on this today made me realize that I’ve been fooled by digital advertisements all my life, people spent time making us love these products, and we bought them, not because they were really good, but because it was packaged to us, in a well-advertised form.

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