Effects of Political Ads on Television on the Choice of Presidential Candidates among First-Time Voters of Liceo De Cagayan University

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The study determined the effects of political advertisements on television on the choice of presidential candidates among first-time voters of Liceo de Cagayan University. In context, the study sought to answer the following aspects of the problem: (1) the frequency of political advertisement exposure of the respondents on television; (2) the political ad components which influence the most and the least the respondents in their voting decisions; (3) the extent of influence of political advertising components among first time voters in Liceo de Cagayan University; (4) the candidate’s political advertisement which influence the most and the least the respondents’ choice of president; and (5) the significant relationship between the political ads components and the decision making of the respondents when they are grouped according to age, gender, course, and religion. In the treatment and analysis of data, frequency counts, percentage distribution, weighted mean and Pearson Correlation were used. The result of the study showed that majority (87%) of the respondents watch political ads on television in the evening. Moreover, majority (59%) of the respondents sometimes watch political ads. It was also found out that campaign platform influenced the most (59.2%) the respondents while campaign endorsers (32.8%) fell on the last spot of the survey. The findings showed that political ad components, namely: campaign platform, jingles, endorsers, and campaign themes moderately influenced the first-time voters. It was also revealed that Noynoy’s political ad influenced the most the voters in their choice of presidential candidate as he won in the past election and got the highest votes. Lastly, the statistical tests showed that there is no significant relationship between the components of political ads and the decision making of the respondents when they are grouped according to age, gender, course, and religion. The significant relationship only exists between the campaign platform and its influential effects in terms of gender. The results suggest that political advertisements should focus more on their campaign platforms rather than on campaign jingles and endorsers which have lesser influence on audiences. The voters should also choose their political candidates based on his background, capacity, experience as well as his campaign platforms. Moreover, political advertisers should always take into consideration the gender of their audiences. In relation to this, a political candidate may propose programs or projects intended for a particular gender and political advertisers should introduce effective and realistic platforms through their political ads in order to influence the voters. Keywords - political advertisements, politics, voters, presidential candidates, political platforms