Mexicans' Responses Toward Televised Political Ads During 2006 Presidential Election

Abstract

The objective of this research is to illustrate the effect of message strategy on Mexicans' responses toward televised political advertising campaigns during the 2006 presidential election. To achieve the purpose of the study, two focus groups were conducted to assist in understanding the effect that message strategies, whether negative or positive, have on a voter's response to televised political advertising. In particular, the authors explored to what extend positive and negative advertisements affect the voter's cognition, emotions, and attitude towards the candidate. Overall, the observations obtained in this study support previous findings, which suggested that apathy to political campaigns are due to the growing cynicism developed through negative political campaigns.

Keywords:

• Televised Ad
• Political Campaigns
• Negative Advertising
• Viewer's Emotions