Reexamining the Effects of Electoral Competition on Negative Advertising

Prior research suggests that campaigns become more negative when the election environment becomes more competitive. Much of this research suffers from data and design limitations. I replicate and extend prior analyses using a much larger number of cases. Using advertising data drawn from 374 U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns contested from 2000 through 2018, I find evidence that electoral competition encourages candidates to engage in more negative advertising campaigns and that incumbency status conditions these effects. Incumbents of both parties use more negative messaging strategies as competition increases. The effects of competition among challengers and open seat candidates is mixed. These results add to what we know about campaign advertising behavior and suggest that researchers should take care to avoid ignoring important contextual factors that underlie candidates’ strategic choices.

Social Advertising Effectiveness in Driving Action: A Study of Positive, Negative and Coactive Appeals on Social Media

Background: Social media offers a cost-effective and wide-reaching advertising platform for marketers. Objectively testing the effectiveness of social media advertising remains difficult due to a lack of guiding frameworks and applicable behavioral measures. This study examines advertising appeals’ effectiveness in driving engagement and actions on and beyond social media platforms. Method: In an experiment, positive, negative and coactive ads were shared on social media and promoted for a week. The three ads were controlled in an A/B testing experiment to ensure applicable comparison. Measures used included impressions, likes, shares and clicks following the multi-actor social media engagement framework. Data were extracted using Facebook ads manager and website data. Significance was tested through a series of chi-square tests. Results: The promoted ads reached over 21,000 users. Significant effect was found for appeal type on engagement and behavioral actions. The findings support the use of negative advertising appeals over positive and coactive appeals. Conclusion: Practically, in the charity and environment context, advertisers aiming to drive engagement on social media as well as behavioral actions beyond social media should consider negative advertising appeals. Theoretically, this study demonstrates the value of using the multi-actor social media engagement framework to test advertising appeal effectiveness. Further, this study proposes an extension to evaluate behavioral outcomes.

Influence of Gender on the Advertising Responses of Young People for Products of Mobile Operators in Bulgaria

The use of gender as a marketing strategy for market segmentation requires consideration of gender differences in information processing. This would increase the effect of advertising campaigns by adapting them to the dynamically changing market. he presented empirical study was conducted after 300 men and women aged 18 to 25 years, users of functional mobile products. The aim of the study is to determine the extent to which gender determines positive and negative advertising responses, identifying subjective judgments. The results of the research are empirical confirmation of some basic hypotheses of the Selective model of information processing in advertising messages: objectivity in the processing of information by men and subjectivity in the processing of information by women; selectivity in the perception of the attributes of the product by men and integrity - by women and a stronger willingness to use new products by women than by men. The present study offers an empirical hypothesis that women form positive responses to a larger number of signals in advertising, while men form negative responses to a larger number of signals in advertising messages. Satisfaction is proving to be a very important factor in advertising responses for both sexes, as it is a stronger factor for women, and men’s frustration with a mobile product is stronger than for women.

Why do candidates attack? Explanatory factors in negative television political advertising

Facing the concern of increasing incivility in political campaigns, we present a content analysis of negative advertising broadcast in four Mexican presidential elections, to explain the factors that shape their treats and likelihood of emission (2000 to 2018, N=108). Three factors are significant: competitiveness of the elections raises the likelihood of attacks; strict regulation makes them subtler, and party ideology determines the tactics followed.

Data, Measurements, and Methodology

Chapter 2 presents the divergent data sets, collected in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 and focusing primarily on the 2014 U.S. Senate campaigns, used to test the tolerance and tactics theory of negativity. U.S. Senate elections are the ideal laboratory for exploring the impact of negative advertising because senatorial campaigns are characterized by impressive variability in the amount, content, and tone of negativity, the types of candidates, the size of the constituencies, and the characteristics of the media markets. A variety of methods, including surveys, experiments, content analyses, focus groups, and facial recognition software are used to measure people’s tolerance for negativity; the relevance and civility of negative advertisements; and people’s reactions to negative commercials varying in civility and relevance. These various data sets are ultimately used to assess the impact of negative advertisements on people’s assessments of candidates and on their decision to vote on Election Day.

Athleticism in NCAA D-III: It Ain’t Only Football That Matters

Most D-III universities field a football team, yet little is known about how a football program can influence the quality of the student body or rate at which students graduate. To evaluate these advertising and effectiveness effects of football, we build balanced panel data sets using available private D-III universities (80–90% of all D-III universities) from 2003 through 2010. We also account for overall athletic participation. Using generalized linear model (GLM) and linear-in-means estimation procedures, we find conditional evidence of the advertising and effectiveness hypotheses of football. We find that female athletes are successful as advertising and effectiveness, while male athletes are negative advertising and of neutral to negative effectiveness.