International Journal of Advertising

2024 is a Super Election Year – with national elections in more than 60 countries, including those with large populations (India, Indonesia, Mexico, United States). More than 2 billion people (about 25% of the world population) are heading to the polls (Bucholz, 2024). At the same time, record-level advertising spending could mean new ways to reach voters with information to help them make decisions. However, the potential for technology to positively or negatively impact targeting, messaging, and dissemination through Generative AI –leads to new research questions, new ethical and regulatory challenges, and new considerations for efficacy. There is also opportunity to better understand traditional and new forms of political advertising and message persuasion, to understand audience perceptions of political advertising, and to investigate the ways in which audience characteristics or political affiliations relate to advertising effects and efficacy.

Despite calls for research on political advertising nearly 15 years ago (Taylor, 2010) and a review with research directions in 2015 (Van Steenburg 2015), there remains ample opportunity for scholars across fields (e.g., advertising, communication, marketing, media studies, political science) and around the world to contribute their expertise to the political context. There is some evidence that people may not know much about political advertising or the way that it is regulated (e.g., Haley 2020; Nelson et al. 2021) and may question targeted or mistargeted ads, especially on social media (e.g., Binder et al. 2022; Hirsch et al. 2023). There is also concern over gender stereotypes in political advertising (Lee 2014), the way that algorithms classify and target people (Cotter et al. 2021) and suggestion that the narrative style of political advertising may relate to efficacy (McLaughlin et al. 2019). Yet, we don’t fully know how or if (or why) political advertising works in the contemporary landscape or around the world.
This special issue calls for papers on political advertising. We encourage a wide range of topics and issues – across methods (qualitative, quantitative, empirical, historical, theoretical, computational, case study, etc.)– for this special issue. Comparative studies across countries or studies within a singular cultural context are welcome.

Research topics may address (but are not limited to):
• Misinformation, disinformation and deep fakes in political messages
• Social media and political advertising
• Local geotargeting
• AI and political advertising
• Big data and targeting political advertising
• Local vs. National political advertising
• Efficacy in political advertising
• Classic political advertising campaigns
• Communication patterns in political advertising
• Political persuasion knowledge, interest, and behaviors in advertising campaign
• Social issues in political advertising campaigns
• Political engagement and disengagement among voters and advertising
• Political parties and advertising
• Segmentation and targeting in political advertising
• Gender and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in political advertising
• Ethics and Regulation in Political Advertising
• Message Content and Effects (Narrative, Valence, Emotions, Image, etc.)
• Measuring effects of political advertising
• Interpretations of political advertising
• Issues with negative political advertising
• News, media and political advertising

Manuscripts can be conceptual or empirical. We encourage a wide range of topics and issues – across methods (qualitative, quantitative, empirical, historical, theoretical, computational, case study, etc.)– for this special issue on political advertising. Comparative studies across countries or studies within a singular cultural context are welcome.

Manuscripts must be prepared according to the journal’s formatting style. All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process. Please select “Political Advertising: Issues, Opportunities & Challenges Across the Globe” to be found under the Special Issue tab, when submitting your paper to ScholarOne.

Please direct any inquiries related to this special issue to the guest editors (see emails). We look forward to receiving your contributions.

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