Advertising for Europe

Abstract

This study analyzes and compares party ads that were broadcast on television during the 2009 European Election campaign in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Even though electoral TV ads have never reached the same importance in European countries as in the US, such ads are to be regarded as an expression of the specific political culture of a country and therefore have relevance beyond election campaigns. An international comparison of ads produced for the same event is particularly suited to revealing similarities across cultures as well as national idiosyncrasies. Additionally, the present study demonstrates a methodological approach that defines a ‘sequence’ as the unit of analysis instead of the whole spot, and thus it is different from previous research on electoral advertising.

The writing is on the wall: the limited professionalization of European parliament election campaign posters

“…Since our focus lies on second-order elections, which are thought of to be less prone to being personalized (e.g. Holtz-Bacha et al 2012;Giebler and Weßels 2013), our analysis provides a conservative test of the personalization thesis. Although the literature on media coverage of election campaigns provides opposing evidence as regards personalization (e.g.…”

“…In other words, EP election campaigns matter nevertheless. We know little about the degree of professionalization of European election campaigns beyond cross-country comparisons at single points in time (De Vreese 2009;Holtz-Bacha et al 2012;Moring et al 2016; for exceptions, see Mykkänen 2013, 2014). The idea of professionalization per definition assumes over-time changes.…”