Areas of research in political advertising: a review and research agenda

Abstract

Political advertising is an increasingly researched area. Yet the sundry natures of research findings to date demonstrate a body of work searching for direction and a unifying theory. A review of 129 published research articles specifically related to the use of advertising in the marketing of elections uncovered eight themes within this body of work, and helped identify gaps that led to six recommendations for areas of future research, in an effort to stimulate and guide future investigations of political advertising.

Keywords:

• political advertising
• election advertising
• research agenda
• literature review

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Brian Lain and Dr. Francisco Guzman for guidance with early drafts of the research, Rabab Hashmi and Matt Stonehill for assistance with data analysis, and the reviewers and editors for their helpful comments that improved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.