Marie Grusell

Advertising? Yes Please,But Only When It’s My Choice.

Abstract This article examines the Swedish population’s perceptions of advertising in a media context. Preliminary findings show a complex picture of the relationship with advertising. A person is more positive to advertising, when the ad is consumed as a personal choice, rather than perceived as forced upon her. The media context and how the advertising is distributed play a role in how it is perceived. The result of this paper is based on a representative sample of 1,700 persons (age 15–85) who answered a national survey in Sweden during November—December 2005.

More Cold Case Than Hot Spot

How does the public perceive televised political advertising when it is introduced as a completely new element of campaign communications? The European Parliamentary Elections in 2009 may be characterized as the first campaign where such advertising appeared on a larger scale in Sweden, but the National Election Campaign in 2006 was the initial breakthrough for political advertising in television. Two major research questions are raised: First, how can public opinion on such political advertising be described? Second, how are these attitudes related to individual and societal factors? The results indicate that attitudes towards political advertising in Sweden are in line with attitudes towards advertising in general. However, ideological beliefs on the individual level seem to be almost irrelevant. Without being on the political agenda, the political TV-advertising issue is mainly considered from non-political perspectives.Abstract How does the public perceive televised political advertising when it is introduced as a completely new element of campaign communications? The European Parliamentary Elections in 2009 may be characterized as the first campaign where such advertising appeared on a larger scale in Sweden, but the National Election Campaign in 2006 was the initial breakthrough for political advertising in television. Two major research questions are raised: First, how can public opinion on such political advertising be described? Second, how are these attitudes related to individual and societal factors? The results indicate that attitudes towards political advertising in Sweden are in line with attitudes towards advertising in general. However, ideological beliefs on the individual level seem to be almost irrelevant. Without being on the political agenda, the political TV-advertising issue is mainly considered from non-political perspectives.

Setting the Trend or Changing the Game? Professionalization and Digitalization of Election Campaigns in Sweden

Professionalization and digitalization are two distinctive features of election campaigns in the twenty-first century. Are existing campaign structures and strategies reinforced by the implementation of new technology, or does this technology radically change campaigning conditions? This article investigates this topic by analyzing the two most recent national election campaigns in Sweden in 2010 and 2014. The results indicate that both professionalization and digitalization tendencies are strong, but most clearly linked to each other among bigger, catch-all campaign parties, while smaller niche parties in a multiparty system tend to choose different campaign options with regard to structure and strategies.