Children’s reactions to ‘Taste is the difference’ indomie instant noodles television commercial in Nigeria: Anambra State in focus

Abstract

This study evaluated children's responses to the 'Taste is the difference' Indomie Instant noodles television commercial in Anambra State, Nigeria. It is premised on the background that children who live and interact with other members of society cultivate different behaviours after exposure to media content. There is a need to control the spread of unethical media content for children's safety, cultivating acceptable socio-cultural behaviours and positive development. The study hinged on Cultivation and Social Learning Theories and adopted the Focus Group Discussion research method with structured questions as a data collection instrument. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to select 364 primary six pupils as respondents from three schools in the three senatorial districts of Anambra State, Nigeria, on consent from relevant authorities. Findings show that respondents were significantly exposed to the select commercial; there was a high recall of message elements. The respondents were also found to be favourably disposed to the message elements and perceived some elements as imperfect because they eroded aspects of their culture. The study concludes that the select respondents responded positively to the entertainment aspect and negatively to the cultural implication of the commercial. The study recommended amendments to message elements in the commercial that eroded some aspects of Nigerian culture.