THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER CHOICE: A CASE STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN CONTEMPORARY SITUATION. Advertising generally in the Nigeria situation as well as worldwide has played a very vital role in influencing the choice of consumer goods/services, but the Nigerian situation, because of her economy presents an interesting scenario for closer study. The economy has been passing through some drastic changes both in the production and manufacturing sectors, the service as well as the informal sectors and in the rate at which consumers shift from the demand of one product to another. There has been incessant increases in prices because of the high inflationary rate, introduction of new brands and innovation in various areas. The study reveals that all these have heightened the competitive drive to sell off goods stockpiled in warehouses (increasing advent of sales promotions). Aggressive advertising is now the order of the day, producers/manufacturers are not only prepared to sell at below cost price to offset increasing cost of overdrafts in the banks, they constantly improve on the quality management to constantly improve the quality of goods/services, thereby overtime reducing costs; this places them on the leading edge with increasing profit and ability to stay in business. The study shows that consumers divert to goods and services of lower prices for reasons of availability of funds. They are also aware now of the maxim that says good value for your money". With constant innovation consumers are rushing for new brands that spring up- This is the recent case with Michael Power Stout Lager that came up with an improved quality beer this increased sales for them even at the same price. Consumers have been shifting in their demand patterns from one product to another and which importance has been doubly acknowledged because of present hardship which has caused serious reduction in the purchasing power of the consumers. The results of the study show that about 80% of consumers respond favourably to advertising. The percentage of those who agreed that advertising influences the rate of frequency of usage of a product was 85%. The number of people who believed in advertising changing their taste for a product was also on the high side (70%). Other variables used were on shift in demand (85%), target guidance (85% consumers) increased in consumer varieties (85% brand loyalty (70%). Alot of the respondents were not favourably disposed to some other variables like increase in cost due to advertising/manufacturers. 60% of respondents agreed that some advertising could be misleading. While 45% of them disagreed with the fact that advertising determines quality, 25% seemed to agreed. The rest 15% were not sure. The study tried to find out what consumers complaints are more on. 60% replied that their complaints were more on price than on media or organisation effects of no advertising showed a 90% reduction in purchases, the rest 10% stopped purchased automatically.