Appealing to Hearts and Minds

The Case of a Political Advertising Campaign in the 2019 European Parliament Elections in Cyprus

Authors

  • Nilüfer Türksoy Eastern Mediterranean University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v6i2.645
Abstract Views: 919 PDF Downloads: 576

Abstract

This research explores the political advertising campaign of Niyazi Kızılyürek, who was a candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election with the left-wing Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) in Cyprus. It aims to uncover the content of political ads by focusing on the emotive character of the campaign language. Adopting a multi-method approach involving visual and qualitative content analysis of fifty-five ads, I examined the characteristics of communication materials distributed prior to the election. I looked at the type of tone, theme, language, music, visuals, and emotions these ads displayed. The main findings of the study are the following: (1) Kızılyürek’s political stance, which favors a solution to the problem of Cyprus based on creating a federation with Greek Cypriots, is literally reflected in each ad; (2) issue-based ads that underline political issues in the country were preferred to image-based ads that highlighted the personal qualities of the candidate; (3) both emotional appeals (associated with feelings such as hope and enthusiasm) and logical appeals (which tended to promote rational information processed by the conscious mind) were employed in the ads; and, (4) the overall tone of the ads was positive in nature, while negative emotions were completely avoided in this campaign.

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Published

2020-09-14

How to Cite

[1]
Türksoy, N. 2020. Appealing to Hearts and Minds: The Case of a Political Advertising Campaign in the 2019 European Parliament Elections in Cyprus. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. 6, 2 (Sep. 2020). DOI:https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v6i2.645.

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Section

Passionate Europe. An expressive turn in European parliamentary election campaig