CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Advertising has grown increasingly popular as an object of enquiry, a field of professional practice and an index of modern business. Advertising therefore is the dissemination of sales message through purchases time and space, Fletcher (1979). It is also a form of communication through media about products, services or ideas, paid for by an identified sponsor, Ozor (1998:p.1).
Advertising is an exciting, dynamic and challenging enterprise. Its often persuasive, fascinating and its materialistic nature makes it an object of criticism and misunderstanding, Benson-Eluwa (2004,p.3). It is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by an identified sponsor through the various media, Bovee and Aron (1986).
Advertising however, performs functions such as marketing communication, education and socialization. It is now a tradition that every business organization communicates with its diverse audience which include; government, consumers, shareholders, distributors, employees, suppliers, and the general public about their new products and policies. Consumer behaviour on the other hand is as varies as consumers themselves. There is no direct link between the act of placing an advertisement in the media and the behaviour of consumer purchasing the product in the sense in which there is a direct link between the consumer purchasing the product and the product leaving the factory. Consumer’s reaction to an advertisement for a product can be varies ranging from a desire to purchase the product to absolute apathy. However, placing advertising in the media is a form of communication which is capable of buying  about a kind of action at a distance in an action which will have a profound effect on the eventual sale of the product.
Advertising generally works on the audio-visual senses of consumers and thereby set up in their minds a chain of reactions capable of influencing their buying decisions, Nworah (2004:p.2) the ease with which advertisements succeed in the process of influencing consumer behaviour will depend highly on the credibility of the message. In the light of the foregoing, this research is set out to examine the impact of television advertising of Etisalat on its consumers. Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services (EMTS), trading as Etisalat is a Nigerian Company duly incorporated under the laws of Nigeria in partnership with Mubadala Development Company and Etisalat of the limited Arab Emirates.
Incorporated in Nigeria as a private company, it acquires the limited Access license from the federal government in January 2007. The license includes a mobile license and spectrum in the GSM 1800 and 900MHz bands. Etisalat acquires a 40% stake in EMTS and is now the operator of the unified Access license. Etisalat has been the telecommunications services provider in the United Arab Emirates since 1976 and has footprint in 18 countries traversing the middle East, Asia and Africa. In its many years of operations. It has built up state-of-the-art telecom infrastructure and taken a leadership position of innovation, and quality service delivery among regional and international operators.
In Nigeria, Etisalat made the first official call on its network on the 13th of March 2008 in the presence of officials from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In September of same year, it kicked off commercial operations with the innovative 0809 you chose campaign which enables Nigerians choose numbers special to them as their mobile  numbers. Full commercial operations began in October 2008. In the same year in a bid to make the product (Etisalat) popular in Nigeria they used the face of a very popular Nigerian musician called Banky W so as to boost the sales and recognision of the product. The advert was placed in leading television stations nationwide thereby reaching a large audience. This made Etisalat to be more popular because they used the face of a celebrity the whole nation like.