When Love In Every Word (Part 1) swept across YouTube earlier this year, it was more than just a hit; it became a cultural phenomenon. Bam Bam’s Chioma and Uzor Arukwe’s “Odogwu” captured imaginations: grand romantic gestures, whispered promises, and a fairy-tale whirlwind romance that felt both aspirational and dangerously intoxicating. In its first week alone, the film garnered over ten million views, and social media buzzed with memes, declarations of love, and cautions in equal measure. It was the kind of viral moment Nollywood rarely sees: instantly shareable, deeply felt, and impossible to ignore.
So when Omoni Oboli dropped Love In Every Word 2: The Wedding, expectations were naturally sky-high. She didn’t just give viewers more romance; she gave them a more opulent world. The sequel’s live premiere drew a record-breaking 84,000 concurrent viewers, and within hours, the view count surged into the millions. Oboli took the universe she created and elevated it: lush resorts, glittering weddings, family legacies, and, yes, a parade of brand partnerships.
But that brand parade is precisely where the conversation becomes complicated.
When the Romance Crosses Over Into Advertisement
From the moment the sequel unfolds, the film weaves in brand after brand, including Vaseline, Boy Spyce, GIG Logistics, MTN MiFi, Peak milk, Lipton, UBA Bank, Coca-Cola, Boz Jewellery, Close-Up, Ziba Resort, Knorr, Mamador, Amore Gardens, etc. Some placements are subtle, nestled into moments of daily life. Others feel bold and conspicuous, using billboards, overt verbal mentions, packaging featured as props, and characters referencing products with more enthusiasm than the plot.
Critics have not held back. In a review for Pulse Nigeria, Brooks Eti-Inyene writes that while Uzor Arukwe’s performance as Odogwu remains magnetic, confident, warm, and funny, the film sometimes feels like it’s caught between a love story and a marketing showcase. Moments like Knorr billboards, Mamador Cooking Oil or the unconvincing MTN MiFi dialogue pull the viewer out of the emotional rhythm. Eti-Inyene asks: Did we really need this sequel? For them, Part Two is “an overextended Instagram caption,” gorgeous in its aesthetics but blurry in its emotional clarity.
Behind the Lens: What the Experts Think
Filmmaker and media strategist Dr. Victor Okhai has been especially vocal about the complicated joy of branded entertainment. He warmly acknowledges the role of product placement as one of Nollywood’s underused financing models, a practice familiar in Hollywood and long overdue on this side of the continent. But Okhai draws a sharp line between organic integration and contrived spectacle.
The immediate past president of the Directors Guild of Nigeria praises a scene early in the film: when Chioma gives Odogwu a basket of food, including a bottle of Coca-Cola. There’s no announcement, no forced dialogue, just a natural gesture, and in that moment, the brand feels like part of the world. According to him, “That first brand placement made sense because it served the story rather than interrupting it”.
But not all the later scenes earn his approval. The MiFi moment, he argues, is a misstep: the dialogue literally names the network before even turning the device on, breaking the illusion. For Okhai, product placement should be invisible, working behind the scenes, as part of the set design, not as an obvious plot point. He imagines a more elegant execution: an actor picks up a branded seasoning cube or a bottle of cooking oil in the kitchen during the wedding on a close-up shot, or a shot lingers on a milk carton or drink in the fridge, without it becoming the centre of attention. “If a product just hangs around like a billboard,” he says, “it’s not serving the story. It’s just advertising.”
He argues that when brands call themselves out too clearly, they risk destroying the magic. Subtle placement works better: when the viewer doesn’t consciously think, “Oh, that’s an ad,” but still absorbs the brand at a subliminal level. For Okhai, that’s where real power lies.
On the marketing side, Tolulope Medebem, COO of Aster Integrated Marketing and President of EXMAN (Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria), sees Love In Every Word 2 as an audacious experiment, one that marries storytelling with strategic brand partnerships in ways that are rarely attempted in Nollywood.
Medebem praises the film for its boldness. She believes Oboli’s team secured very strong brand partnerships, aligning with brands that complement the film’s themes of love, elegance, and aspiration. According to her, the producers didn’t just sell screen time; they created a lifestyle universe in which these brands feel at home.
That said, she acknowledges the delicate balance between commercial visibility and authenticity. Some branded moments, she says, may lean too far into spectacle, but overall, the film reflects the evolving sophistication of Nigerian brand-film collaborations. For her, the benefits outweigh the risks: with each well-integrated moment, brands gain visibility and emotional equity, while the film gains funding and polish.
Medebem’s perspective is rooted in her deep experience in experiential marketing. She understands that modern consumers are not just watching, they’re participating, feeling, and associating. And she believes that Love In Every Word 2 is not just a movie, but a carefully curated brand experience, one that signals to other filmmakers and marketers: this is possible in Nollywood.
Another voice offering a balanced view is Funmi Osineye, a marketing leader with Nestlé Nigeria (Maggi). She applauds how certain brands are woven into the story for real narrative reasons. Take Ziba Resort, for example: it’s not just a pretty backdrop. In the film, a character’s mother visits the resort as part of a reconciliation arc, giving emotional weight to the brand’s presence.
Osineye argues that such placements do more than advertise; they add to the story. Yes, some scenes lean into self-promotion, but many are scripted in a way that justifies the brand’s involvement. In her eyes, that’s smart marketing. She sees the film as a two-sided coin: on one side, high visibility; on the other, carefully thought-through integration. And for different types of brands, FMCG, financial services, and hospitality, that balance might look very different. But in Love In Every Word 2, she believes the effort to weave brand narratives into character arcs and settings is largely successful.
For Dr. Biodun Ajiborode, founder of the Brand Management Academy, the film stands out as a pioneering model for brand-funded Nollywood. He defends many of the placements, Peak milk, Lipton, Coca-Cola, Knorr, and Mamador, as not just random ads, but as contextually appropriate. In his view, the producers earned praise for linking these brands to real-life occasions in the story: a wedding, family meals, leisure, and travel.
Ajiborode suggests that we should not rush to slam every brand moment simply because it’s visible. Instead, he argues, we should appreciate the innovation: with these partnerships, the film could weather higher production costs, amplify its reach, and deliver a more polished visual and narrative product. For him, this is how Nollywood can build sustainable, modern business models through creative, mutually beneficial brand integration.
Ilerioluwa Phillips, a filmmaker and media relations executive, zeros in on the business logic. She points out that the sequel came out only seven months after the first, meaning the franchise momentum was strong, and the brands were strategic in their choice to join early. With millions of views already earned, she argues, it’s a smart move for brands to align with such a financially savvy and creatively ambitious project.
She also notes,“If you’ve got your brand, why not get visibility in a movie like this?” For her, Oboli and her team created a platform where brand integration is not just funding, but part of building a shared, aspirational universe. She sees it as a win-win.
The Audience Speaks: Love, Scepticism, and “Wow, That’s a Lot of Logos”
Critics, marketers, and insiders aren’t the only ones weighing in. Audience voices have been swift and vocal. On Twitter, some fans joke that the sequel could’ve doubled as a live catalogue. On Reddit, users debate whether the film is more rom-com or rom-ad. One commenter wrote that the wedding scenes felt like a “branded gala,” while another defended the lavishness, saying, “If you’re coming for romance and fantasy, the gloss is part of the charm.”
Even among those who find the brand presence heavy-handed, there’s admiration for the ambition. Many viewers concede that the film’s production values are a step up the cinematography, the set design, and the locations all feel more cinematic than what many Nollywood viewers are used to on a YouTube release.
A Turning Point for Nollywood
So what does Love In Every Word 2 represent? Is it the moment Nollywood films start to turn into walking billboards, or is it the beginning of a more refined era of branded storytelling in African cinema?
In many ways, the film carries both promise and contradiction. On one hand, the success of the first film gave Oboli the leverage to pull in major brand partners and deliver a sequel at scale. The boldness of the collaboration signals that Nollywood is maturing: filmmakers are no longer just hoping for funding, they are actively building brand-funded ecosystems.
On the other hand, the criticisms are not trivial. When brands call out so loudly, when dialogue becomes product pitch, there’s a risk of undermining the emotional core. As Dr. Okhai warns, it’s a delicate art: product placement should enrich the storytelling, not compete with it.
But perhaps Love In Every Word 2 is exactly where Nollywood needs to be right now: in experimentation. By bringing in these partnerships, the good, the bad, and the unavoidable compromise, Oboli is stretching the boundaries of what a Nigerian film can be. She’s opening a door for more sophisticated financing models, and inviting both brands and creatives to figure out how to strike that balance.
For the viewer, the experience may feel uneven at times. But for Nollywood as an industry, it’s a powerful signal: love stories can be big, bold, and bankable without losing their heart.