As much as I loved traveling like a zombie for 20 hours, I was ready to finally take my first steps into the unknown. After walking under the “Akwabba” sign that welcomed us to Accra, I couldn’t wait to be united with my roomies who happened to be dancing out on the town. I missed the dance party, but on the way there I couldn’t help but notice the abundant amount of billboards that obstructed my vision. Even in the U.S. I wasn’t used to being bombarded with that many advertisements along the road. And they were ridiculous. I think the billboards speak for themselves.

Just like Ghanaian newspapers, the ads seem to be sensationalized and straight to the point. There’s no doubt that ads in America do that too, but none of the ads I have seen attempt to connect with you on a deeper level. Nike’s “Just Do It” says more than just to buy a pair of shoes. Despite the billboards’ lack of emotional connection, I definitely know of a lot of cell phone carriers now! Cell phone carriers will even offer to paint Ghanaians’ houses for free in exchange for putting their logo all over them.

Some of us have also noticed that the billboards feature “real” people rather than the anorexic models or muscular bros that feature in our American advertisements. We sat in on a lecture at the University of Ghana yesterday, and a professor by the name of Emmanuel K. Mwinila-Yuori spoke about the history of advertising in Ghana. I asked him if it was common for ad agencies to use Photoshop to affect one’s body image. Emmanuel said it definitely occurs, but it’s not as effective because typically Ghanaians believe it is offensive. It’s just blown up across the board in the states.

But then there are ads like these…

…which are hilarious, right? Can you effectively sell water with sex appeal? Maybe? Or is this one of the ads that offends Ghanaians?

Nonetheless, there are ads almost everywhere you look, and the copyrighting is golden. So I thought I’d create a Tumblr for our group just for photos of Ghanaians’ advertisements. Currently, our power is out and I’m about to run out of battery so I will make the tumblr soon!

Also, if you are a tweeter you can search our hashtag #UOGhana12.