"I only watch Netflix. I only stream. Nigerian TV is dead to me." Then the Gala ad comes on at the bar. They sing every word. The Indomie jingle plays at the supermarket. They harmonize. The MTN "Everywhere you go" tone rings from a stranger's phone. They complete it. The "local TV is dead" person is a walking archive of Nigerian advertising. And the hypocrisy! They claim to be above local content. But they know the DSTV ad schedule by heart. They can quote the Star beer slogan from 2003. They remember the Peak Milk "Papa, mama, pikin" family. The local content is not dead. It is buried in their subconscious, waiting for a trigger. But the nostalgia! The ads of childhood. The jingles that marked Saturday morning. The slogans that became language. "Na who born the fine bara?" "One day, monkey go go market." The advertising is not just selling. It is culture. It is memory. It is Nigeria. The "I don't watch local TV" person is not sophisticated. They are just in denial. The denial is performance. The performance is content. The content is always local, always Nigerian, always in their head whether they admit it or not. Which Nigerian ad jingle lives rent-free in your head? And do you actually watch local TV, or just pretend you don't?
