Abstract:
Herbal sex-enhancement drugs are herbal remedies that function as energisers for sexual
intercourse, and the increase in the usage of these drugs in Nigeria has been influenced by
advertisements. Existing studies on advertisement of herbal remedies have identified language
techniques, discourse styles, and discourse strategies. However, the manifestations of audience
engagement and influence through context, ideologies and strategies have been underexplored.
Therefore, this study was designed to examine language use in the advertisements of herbal
sex-enhancement drugs, with a view to determining how contexts are evoked and how
communication strategies and ideologies are deployed to influence consumers.
Teun van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, complemented by
Jacob Mey’s Pragmatic Acts Theory and Paul Simpson’s notions of Reason and Tickle, was
adopted as the framework. The descriptive design was used. The stratified random technique
was deployed for the selection of nine southern states: South-West (Lagos, Oyo and Ondo);
South-South (Delta, Edo and Rivers); and South-East (Anambra, Abia and Enugu). Similarity
in the patterns of advertisement of the herbal sex-enhancement drugs in these regions
necessitated the selection. Forty advertisements, average of four from each state, conveniently
selected based on availability and relevance, were audio-recorded at markets and motor parks.
The data were subjected to critical discourse analysis.
Four contexts, namely sexual, medical, marriage and business, were evoked in the
advertisements. They formed the basis for the communication and comprehension of the
relevance of the drugs. Sexual context drew on the mental model of sexual intercourse, while
medical context built on consumers’ understanding of medical consultation by positioning the
advertiser as doctor and the consumer as patient. While marriage context relied on the social
construct of sex as the binding force between husband and wife in the marriage institution,
business context reminded consumers that the advertisement messages were an invitation to
purchase the advertised drugs. The communication strategies used by the advertisers were
problematisation of medical conditions, blame-shift hedging, non-evidential claims,
camaraderie evocation and asserting drug’s potency. The target consumers’ sexual and medical
conditions were presented as problems, to put them in a position where they would long for
help, and drugs were sometimes projected to be so potent to address all the issues faced by the
customers. Masculinist, pronatalist, “organicist”, heterosexualist and theistic ideologies
underpinned the advertisements. Masculinist ideology built on the social construct that a male
adult is defined by his sexual prowess; while pronatalist ideology projected that sex should go
beyond pleasure and lead to procreation in marriage. “Organicist” ideology emphasised
preference of herbal drugs to synthetic drugs; heterosexualist ideology promoted sexual
intercourse between man and woman; while theistic ideology established the belief in God for
healing. All the ideologies, except theistic, which appeared only in the South-South and SouthWest advertisements, were projected in the advertisements across the regions.
Advertisements of herbal sex-enhancement drugs in Southern Nigeria have context-evoking
messages, strategies and ideologies targeted at influencing public perception of sex-related
issues.
