ABSTRACT

It is a well-known fact that television advertisements have been present in electoral campaigns since the candidate Dwight Eisenhower used them in the US election of 1952. From there, the use of political television ads has disseminated and intensified in almost all modern democracies. Increasingly, in various areas of the world there are political advertisements, candidates are selected in part for their attractive image projected on the screen, experts advise candidates on marketing strategies, voters’ attitudes and electorate’s feelings, and media professionals are hired to produce convincing campaign pieces. Mass media have become the principal outlet for campaigns (Mancini & Swanson, 1996). In effect, the appearance, growth and development of the advertisements is a good example of the transformation of the role of communication media – television in particular – in electoral campaigns, and of the growth of independent voters (Ansolabehere & Iyengar, 1995). Since television campaign advertisements often attract public attention on a grand scale, parties and candidates put a lot of attention in the production of ads; journalism makes reference to them in their campaign coverage, and voters use ads to inform themselves before deciding their vote. Still, the study of electoral campaigns has not become an attractive object of study in Argentina.