Ghanaian actor and television personality David Dontoh has advised scriptwriters and producers of adverts for products to do thorough research of their target audience to ensure that their adverts hit home.

The actor, who has featured in and written scripts for adverts himself, was speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Friday, 29 May 2020.

He told show host Benjamin Akakpo that producers of adverts must not miss certain aspects of advertising.

“There are certain aspects of advertising that, at times, we miss in producing them. The advert is for certain people in a certain domain with a certain cultural background. You cannot ignore that and then claim to do an advert that will sell or promote the product.”

Mr Dontoh added: “So, we have to do very basic research to know the attitudes, the values, the aesthetics, everything of that community or society so that when the advert falls, everybody will be chasing after it. Even the music score of the advert is enough attraction.”

The actor also noted that the current advertising trend in Ghana tries to capture the sleek adverts of the foreign world, “but it’s not the same with our side of the world”, adding: “Our understanding and our appreciation of language, of pictures, of sound are very peculiar to us and, so, you don’t have to fall for those sleek, crisp, succinct adverts. They’re good, they’re beautiful, they’re perfect but not in our system and the problem we’re having is trying to capture that and use our local advert to do that advert. It doesn't help us."

He advised Ghanaian advert producers to “use a language that has currency, use music or sounds or images that have currency and also make sure that the message is simple as possible just so that you can ride on the wings of that to promote the product”.