Abstract

Party political advertising is an important element in election campaigns in general. However, European Parliament (EP) elections are a special case: Their second-order nature as regards public interest and participation, coupled with limited news coverage creates a low-information electoral environment which may, however, enhance the potential impact of advertisements. EP elections also have a second-order status in terms of the number of comparative studies on elections campaigns and their effects. The small number of analyses available have shown that exposure to television advertisements in EP elections does exert measurable effects on voters. This study analyzes the content of TV advertising used in a sample of six EU member states during the 2009 EP election campaigns.