Political Advertising in Argentina

Abstract

This chapter reviews the increasing importance of political campaigns and ads in Argentina, especially taking into account external variables – political system, political context, media system and campaign regulations – that determine the way in which the ads are produced and also the way in which they distribute information about electoral politics. It summarizes the Argentine literature on television spots, and then present an empirical analysis of Argentine campaign ads in terms of their thematic and communication content. The chapter considers the uses of Internet and social media for the last presidential campaign in Argentina. After some disagreement in the academic literature about campaign advertising, it is widely accepted that election advertisements are political messages televised in a campaign that are persuasive, produced by the parties themselves, and not mediated by the media. Argentina is a presidential democracy. So, the presidency is by far the most important political office.