Political Advertising Research Articles

Reaching Voters on Social Media: Planning Political Advertising on Snapchat

Over the past decade, political advertising via social media has grown rapidly, spurred by microtargeting, which looks to deliver specific messages to tightly defined audiences. Microtargeting strategies have been claimed to be effective, but questions remain around their cost, when looking to optimise impressions for a given budget. We analyse 11,837 ads aired on Snapchat over a two-year period leading up to the 2020 presidential election in the United States, which differ in the number of targeting criteria applied. We compare the number of impressions and the spend per ad placement (measured in CPM), whilst also considering the length of advertising schedule. We find that using fewer targeting criteria and longer schedules increases impressions with comparable or lower spend than microtargeting. These findings are in line with those from traditional broadcast media, such as TV, highlighting the relevance of existing media scheduling knowledge from traditional platforms for political advertising on newer, digital media.

The Experience of Implementing Social and Political Advertising in the Development of the Political System in Uzbekistan: Achievements and Problems

This article analyzes the significance of image in politics, image formation in electoral processes. The article also gives general conclusions on the importance of socio–political advertising in the formation of image in the electoral processes.

To what extent did the Warriors Wanted advertisement campaign succeed in promoting military service to youth through the glorification of personal, social, and cultural identity?

To what extent did the Warriors Wanted advertisement campaign succeed in promoting military service to youth through the glorification of personal, social, and cultural identity?

Identification and political advertising: Exploring the role of ethnic identification in political advertising campaigns

Issues of race and ethnic diversity have emerged as important consideration in campaigning and developing political advertising. This study examines the moderating effect of the strength of ethnic identity for Hispanic and non-Hispanic White voters. The results of the between-subject factorial design indicate that non-Hispanic White individuals with strong ethnic identities hold more favorable attitudes toward a political candidate that advocates against same-sex marriage than non-Hispanic Whites with weak ethnic identities. Non-Hispanic White individuals with strong ethnic identities also expressed greater intentions to vote for and perceptions of similarity to the anti-same-sex marriage candidate. Conversely, Hispanic individuals with strong ethnic identities hold more favorable attitudes toward a political candidate that supports same-sex marriage than Hispanic individuals with weak ethnic identities. Findings show that the degree to which racial/ethnic members affirm their racial/ethnic affiliations influence their voting proclivities when facing a religiously controversial and morally framed social issue such as same-sex marriage.

The S. Paulo Magazine (1936): Photomontage and Political Advertising in the 1930s

RESUMO Este artigo apresentará o ideário do Movimento Bandeira e a composição imagética da revista S. Paulo (1936). Nosso objetivo será discutir como o ideário desse movimento político-cultural foi utilizado como estratégia discursiva para compor a visualidade do referido órgão publicitário. Para apresentarmos essa apropriação, faremos a exposição das formas como a produção cafeeira, a cidade de São Paulo e o “mito bandeirante” foram trabalhados visualmente nesse periódico. Consideramos que a leitura da revista S.Paulo será de extrema relevância, uma vez que apresentaremos a interação entre o ideário do Movimento Bandeira e os usos políticos das fotomontagens. Com a análise, esclareceremos os meios pelos quais o corpo editorial da revista lançou mão da fotografia e da fotomontagem para transmitir uma mensagem política.

Political digital advertising: implications and way forward for Nigeria’s 2023 general elections

This study looked at the Digital Political Advertising: Implications and Way forward for Nigeria's 2023 General Elections. The objectives of the study were to examine the extent of digital media advertising in the 2023 general election; find out the effectiveness of digital media political advertising on Benin City residents’ choice of 2023 presidential candidates in Nigeria; find out the factors (if any), which hinder the effective use of the digital media advertising for the 2023 presidential election and x-ray the ways forward to the impediments of digital advertising usage in the 2023 Nigerian presidential election. The theoretical framework was Cultivation theory and survey served as research instrument. The study found that digital advertising has come to stay and that amidst it is being extensively used by political stakeholders in projecting the agenda and ideologies of the political contenders in the 2023 general elections in Nigeria. As such, political digital advertising cannot be jettisoned by any political party or stakeholders who wish to effectively sell their ideologies irrespective of the presence of traditional and media advertising. It was recommended that political parties and stakeholders who are yet to adopt digital advertising should do so as it has various higher imperatives over traditional political advertising. It was also recommended that political parties and stakeholders who are using digital advertising as their only advertising method should complement their efforts using traditional media in order to get a higher reach especially from political stakeholders who do not have digital advertising reception gadgets.

Suicide Prevention Using Google Ads: Randomized Controlled Trial Measuring Engagement

Studies have shown that individuals may search for suicide-related terms on the internet prior to an attempt. Thus, across 2 studies, we investigated engagement with an advertisement campaign designed to reach individuals contemplating suicide. First, we designed the campaign to focus on crisis, running a campaign for 16 days in which crisis-related keywords would trigger an ad and landing page to help individuals find the national suicide hotline number. Second, we expanded the campaign to also help individuals contemplating suicide, running the campaign for 19 days with a wider range of keywords through a co-designed website with a wider range of offerings (eg, lived experience stories). In the first study, the ad was shown 16,505 times and was clicked 664 times (4.02% click rate). There were 101 calls to the hotline. In the second study, the ad was shown 120,881 times and clicked 6227 times (5.15% click rate); of these 6227 clicks, there were 1419 (22.79%) engagements with the site, a substantially higher rate than the industry average of 3%. The number of clicks on the ad was high despite a suicide hotline banner likely being present. Search advertisements are a quick, far-reaching, and cost-efficient way of reaching those contemplating suicide and are needed despite suicide hotline banners being present. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12623000084684; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=385209.

The effect of color lightness on nonheteronormative‐themed advertising evaluation

Objective: This research examined the effects of color lightness on evaluating advertisements featuring nonheteronormativity‐themed images.Methods: An increasing number of brands feature nonheteronormative couples in advertisement campaigns to target nonheteronormative consumers and position brands as socially progressive. Four studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that nonheteronormativity‐themed advertising that uses lighter images would receive more favorable evaluations than darker images.Results: The color lightness effect influenced attitudes toward the ad, product evaluations, and purchase intentions. Individuals with political conservatism exhibited a preference for lighter colored ads than darker colored ads. Furthermore, the effects of color lightness type on attitude toward ads were moderated by political conservatism, and this effect was mediated by disgust.Conclusion: The current study suggests that a carefully designed advertising campaign featuring nonheteronormativity(gay) couples, which considers design elements can be used to target consumers and signal progressive values supported by sponsoring brands.

Corrigendum to “Shielding citizens? Understanding the impact of political advertisement transparency information”

Corrigendum to “Shielding citizens? Understanding the impact of political advertisement transparency information”

Environmental regulation with preferences for social status

Continuously increasing consumption of material goods drives current resource and environmental crises, including climate change and loss of biodiversity. Although technology offers solutions, their development and adoption is not at the speed required to address these crises. Therefore, demand side responses have to be triggered using policies, with economists suggesting mainly the use of price signals. However, both the effectiveness and the political acceptability of taxation have been questioned, especially since increases in fuel prices during the last decade in both Europe and North America have not yielded the expected reductions in the fuel economy and after the vigorous opposition to the ambitious increases in fuel taxes, for example in France. The present paper offers an explanation for the reduced effectiveness of environmental taxation by focusing on relatively high-income individuals whose consumption of highly polluting material goods is driven by motivations to improve their social status. Furthermore, the paper shows that complementing the tax with information provision aiming at moderating status seeking overconsumption improves social welfare. Decoupling consumption of highly polluting material goods from social status in individuals’ well-being, through informative advertisement campaigns, could have a substantial environmental effect directly and also indirectly by improving the effectiveness of taxation.

Training of Future Translators through Advertising Slogans Translation

The paper focuses on translating advertising texts as an indispensable tool for future translators’ training. It elaborates on a semiotic approach to English advertising slogans translation into Ukrainian. From this perspective, it is possible to capitalize on language to decode the concepts encapsulated in advertising texts and devise ways of affecting mass consciousness. The present research gives a comprehensive account of translation strategies involved in deciphering the subtlety of meanings actualized in the advertising context. A comprehensive translator’s preparation should include training in various translation strategies, as they are essential for producing high-quality translations that meet the needs of both the client and the target audience. By using appropriate translation strategies, translators can ensure that their translations are accurate, efficient, and culturally appropriate while preserving the original text’s style, tone, and impact. Commercial, social, and political advertising slogans have been subjected to a comparative analysis. The study results prove that lexical-semantic, grammatical, and stylistic transformations are used in rendering advertising slogans into Ukrainian. However, the translation process is often complicated due to discrepancies in the syntactic structures of English and Ukrainian languages. The latter affect either separate untranslatable elements or the whole target language text. Therefore, translating advertising texts is a helpful tool for future translators’ training, as it allows them to develop a range of skills and strategies essential for success in the translation industry while also meeting the needs of clients who require high-quality translations of their advertising materials.

Symbolic consumption as a non-traditional predictor of brand loyalty in the sports industry, football club segment

Brand loyalty is one of the main objectives of marketing, due to its impact on the sustainability of organisations; however, the explanation of how this type of loyalty is built in the sports industry is complex, due to the way it is organised. Traditionally, brand loyalty in this industry has been explained by satisfaction, service quality, commitment and trust, thus other variables that have been analysed from the marketing field have not been included in the models developed for the sports industry. The aim of this article was to explore the relationship between symbolic consumption as a non-traditional predictor of brand loyalty in the sports industry, more specifically in the football club segment. For this purpose, a quantitative cross-sectional study was defined, with a non-probabilistic sampling. To test the proposed relationship, modelling by means of partial least squares structural equations was chosen. The results showed that symbolic consumption is positively related to brand loyalty in the sports industry in the football club segment, with a large effect size. This study becomes a starting point for scholars who wish to further explore the relationship between symbolic consumption and brand loyalty in the context of sport. Likewise, for marketing professionals in the sports industry, it suggests the importance of symbolic consumption for the design of strategies that enable the creation of brand loyalty in consumers in the case of football clubs. In this sense, marketing professionals should seek to create advertising and promotional campaigns that appeal to strengthen the relationship of the sports consumer with their social groups based on the actual and ideal self-concept, as lifestyle.

Let it out: A digital communication campaign to reduce suicide and mental health stigma in Kentucky farmers

Given the disproportionately high suicide rate of farmers in Kentucky and the unique cultural needs of farmers, a coalition was created to reduce the stigma of seeking help for mental health. A targeted communications campaign was developed to provide information to farmers at risk. This paper describes the development and launch of the campaign, including formative research, message development, campaign concepts, deployment of the campaign, and initial results. Events, traditional advertising, and social and digital media campaigns provided targeted brand awareness. Initial reception to the campaign was positive, especially with TV and radio watch- and listen-through rates and website traffic. The campaign requires expanded messaging and tactics and new partnerships to influence farmers. Practical and theoretical implications include the future use of paid digital strategies to confidentially influence farmers, additional research about culturally competent approaches toward subsets of farmers, and the amount of detail to provide about mental health conditions.

Analysing Symbiosis between Advertising and Discursive Practices through Celebrity Endorsement in Selected Indian Gaming Apps

Popularity of gaming apps is gaining momentum across the globe. The locale of this paper is Indian scenario wherein the symbiosis of advertising and discursive practices has been gauged. The aim of this paper was to fathom the nuances of advertising praxis having celebrity endorsement as its locus. The paper uses Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as research methodology to analyse the linguistic (verbal and non-verbal) and ideological aspects of the selected eSports and Gaming advertising campaigns. A field survey was conducted on 500 college going students to study the impact of sample advertisements on the target audience. It was found that celebrity endorsers influenced lifestyle and buying behaviour of the target audience. The trends in brand endorsement are changing due to two reasons; first being the rising popularity of YouTubers over Bollywood stars and other sportspersons over cricketers and second being the guidelines issued by ASCI.

Perception and Awareness of Youth Toward the Social Advertising Campaigns Being Run by Private Brands

Advertising is a nicely designed and encapsulated communication about any product or service that gives a brief picture and an attractive and appealing message intending to arouse the interest of target consumers. Information technology is rapidly changing the pace of this communication. When it comes to advertisement and campaigns blended with IT tools, social media plays most the significant role. The aim of this research is to check whether the youth are aware of various social advertising campaigns being run by different organizations and what is their perception about these campaigns. A sample of 300 students enrolled in a large private Indian university chosen on the basis of convenience sampling were considered for collecting data. A structured questionnaire was administered to extract the required data. The result shows that 64.3% respondents thinks that the advertisements which are being run for social causes are real and these advertisements genuinely have a purpose of spreading awareness about any particular social cause. The study further highlighted that the youth pays more heed to those advertisements which are using celebrity with a combination of good music and story. The study focuses on the variables like awareness and perception of youths regarding the social advertisement campaigns and various factors that are responsible for influencing the behavior of individual towards the advertisements including gender, age group, geographical location, qualification, and background.

Shielding citizens? Understanding the impact of political advertisement transparency information

Online targeted advertising leverages an information asymmetry between the advertiser and the recipient. Policymakers in the European Union and the United States aim to decrease this asymmetry by requiring information transparency information alongside political advertisements, in the hope of activating citizens’ persuasion knowledge. However, the proposed regulations all present different directions with regard to the required content of transparency information. Consequently, not all proposed interventions will be (equally) effective. Moreover, there is a chance that transparent information has additional consequences, such as increasing privacy concerns or decreasing advertising effectiveness. Using an online experiment (N = 1331), this study addresses these challenges and finds that two regulatory interventions (DSA and HAA) increase persuasion knowledge, while the chance of raising privacy concerns or lowering advertisement effectiveness is present but slim. Results suggest transparency information interventions have some promise, but at the same time underline the limitations of user-facing transparency interventions.

Understanding CSR Campaigns Through the Lens of Culture Values and Moral Emotion

This study aimed to examine the persuasive influences of moral emotions on younger consumers’ judgments and decision-making and the roles of culture and self-construal in processing corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns. This study employed a between-subjects experiment where American and Chinese participants viewed one of the two CSR advertisement campaigns designed with ego-focused (e.g., an advertisement elicited anger emotion) and other-focused appeals (e.g., an advertisement elicited guilt emotion). By employing an elaboration likelihood persuasion model (ELM), the results indicated that negative moral emotions had significant positive influences on attitudes toward the advertisements and purchase intention through the peripheral route. In addition, results revealed the interaction effects between guilt emotion and cultural values (i.e., country) on attitudes. This study also highlighted the moderating role of self-construal individual values in the relationship between guilt and attitudes toward the campaign. This research provides insights for communication practitioners on designing effective CSR campaigns to reach culturally diverse target audiences.

From Loud to Silent: The Free Patriotic Movement 2005-22 Outdoor Campaigns


 
 
 Lebanon’s history is characterized by events and players outside the country’s borders, which mainly include Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and the United States. Towards the end of the Lebanese Civil War, General Michel Aoun, the caretaker Prime Minister of 1988 and head of the army, emerged as one of the most popular Christian political leaders. He strongly opposed the establishment of Syrian hegemony over its tiny neighbor Lebanon legalized by the Ta’if agreement. Yet, defeated by the Syrian army, Aoun was expelled from Lebanon and went into exile in Paris, France (Rowayheb, 2014). In 2005, twelve days after the last Syrian soldier pulled out of Lebanon following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Aoun returned. Upon his return from exile, he resumed his political career, founded the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) in April 2006 (Ajroudi & Chughati, 2018) and reengaged with the Lebanese public and his backers. What were the political messages employed in the FPM’s resurging political advertising activity? And how did it evolve from 2005 to 2022 based on local and regional alliances?
 
 

Regulating social media through self-regulation: a process-tracing case study of the European Commission and Facebook

ABSTRACT Digital campaigns are an increasingly important facet of political campaigning. As a consequence, calls to regulate online political advertising have become louder. Yet, how digital campaigning and social media platforms should be regulated has been the subject of intense debate. In this paper, we combine a principal-agent perspective with a process-tracing methodology to examine the process of self-regulation of social media platforms. This developed mechanism is applied to the case of political advertisements on Facebook in the context of the 2019 European elections. We analyse the motivation of the European Commission to opt for self-regulation and explain the mismatch between the goals of the European Commission regarding online political campaigning on the one hand, and the deviating implementation of Facebook on the other hand. We find that both media-centric and politics-centric factors led the Commission to choose for self-regulation and identified how a combination of an incomplete contract and insufficient monitoring instruments prevented the Commission from tackling Facebook’s deviating policy with regard to online political advertisements.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF POLITICAL MARKETING AND WORD-OF-MOUTH COMMUNICATION TOWARDS THE IMAGE OF THE MAYOR, TRUST, AND BEGINNING VOTERS’ JUDGEMENTS IN SELECTING A MAYOR IN INDONESIA

Political parties experience a shift in perspective in the context of organizing political campaigns from the traditional era to a new era called political marketing. This study aims to measure the effect of political advertising and word of mouth on the image of regional heads, trust, and voters' decisions in selecting mayors. This research was conducted in Batam City, Riau Archipelago Province, Indonesia in 2021. The type of this research was survey research involving 389 12th-grade high school and vocational high school students as first-time voters. The technique of collecting data is a questionnaire technique, namely through the distribution of questionnaires. Data analysis in this study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis, using Amos 24. The results of the study: 1) Political advertisements influence the image, beliefs, and decisions of first-time voters. 2) word of mouth has a significant effect on the image, and word of mouth has a significant effect on trust and novice voters' decisions. 3) The image of a candidate for regional head influences the trust, confidence, and decisions of first-time voters. 4) Trust in regional head candidates influences the decisions of first-time voters in Batam City, Riau Archipelago Province, Indonesia.