Tobacco smoking imagery in Nigerian musical videos; A four year retrospective review

Aim Tobacco advertisement has been banned in mainstream media, however, contents endorsing smoking are still accessible to people, mostly adolescents, through uncensored online media platforms. This research aimed at evaluating tobacco content in Nigerian musical videos. Methods Top 50 videos of each year from 2014 to 2017 were reviewed independently by two researchers who checked for parameters including: antismoking message, imagery of male, female or group smoking, and imagery of soft core sexual content associated with cigarette smoking. A total of 200 videos were reviewed. The videos were sourced from Youtube according to ratings by AfricaCharts. AfricaCharts rates videos based on TV and radio airplay, record sales, streaming platforms, social media, song and video downloads from top African entertainment sites, as well as YouTube and Dailymotion views. Results About 22 (11%) and 7 (3.5%) videos, with 322 million combined views had imagery of male and female smoking respectively. Videos containing male smoking imagery increased by 150% between 2014 and 2017. Three (1.5%) videos had imagery of smoking associated with sex appeal while 5 (2.5%) videos contained people smoking in groups. Only 1 video (0.5%) with about 5.6 million views contained antitobacco smoking message. A female artiste featured smoking imagery the most. Conclusions Smoking imagery is contained in few Nigerian musical videos; however, its appearance is on the increase. Given the wide acceptance of Nigerian music among African youths, it may be necessary to regulate smoking imagery content of the musical videos to contain its influence on the youths. Funding The study was funded by the authors