DOI: 10.5176/2251-2403_PSSIR14
Authors: Dr. Kavita Sharma
Abstract:
Advertising has immense potential as a promotion tool and is applied in contexts other than business also. In political context, though the use of advertising is not new to any democratic process, yet over the years as compared to other campaigning tools a large share of campaign expenditure is allocated for this purpose and that too across various political parties. The reason for this change primarily relates to using advertising potentials for building mass awareness and recall and to convert these into voter’s preference, to build image, and the voter base.
In the backdrop of this change, the present paper is an attempt to explore the relevance of using political advertising, and particularly in Indian context. The study investigates the perceptions about the role of political advertising in affecting voting behaviour in regard to information search and evaluation, attitude towards voting, and making of voting choice. It is further hypothesized that the perceptions about the role of political advertising are mediated by the level of one’s involvement with voting decision. The study finds very limited support to establish the relevance of using political advertising at the scale it is presently used by various political parties in India.
Keywords: relevance; perceptions; voting decision involvement; cognitive, affective and conative behaviour; issue awareness; laboratory experiments; field survey, advertising expenditure
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