NIGERIA BECOMES THE FIRST COUNTRY TO BAN FOREIGN MODELS IN ADVERTISMENTS!

The measure is expected to boost work available for home-grown talent. Up until now, the Nigerian advertising sector used a large proportion of white British models and voice-over artists.

Even before the ban was announced, companies had to pay a 100,000-Naira tariff, which is around $240, for every foreign model used in an advert, making Nigeria one of the world’s most uncompromising environments for media representation.

“Ten to twenty years ago if you checked the commercials, I would say they were almost 50/50 in terms of foreign faces, and all the voiceovers were British accents,” Steve Babaeko, president of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, tells The Times of London.

Nigerian brands would use foreigners, while multinationals such as Coca-Cola and LG would simply distribute their global campaigns, full of white models, in Nigeria.

Indicating the shift in advertising strategy by international brands, Guinness shot their present African television commercial campaign in Lagos and used a Nigerian director and local models.

Announcing the ban earlier this week, ARCON’s Director General Olalekan Foladapo explained that the policy would not affect ongoing advertising campaigns, saying they would be permitted to run out their terms.

However, Foladapo added that “subsequent applications for revalidation for continued exposure of such materials will not be granted” by the Advertising Regulatory Council.
ORIGINAL LINK -- https://petapixel.com/2022/08/29/nigeria-becomes-first-country-to-ban-foreign-models-in-adverts/