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This article presents an empirical study of young partisans’ and non-voters’ processing of attack ad messages utilised in the 2010 British general election. Expanding understanding of how these messages are processed is important because they can aid electoral and civic engagement, which is declining amongst youth. Currently, there is limited understanding of how youth process these ad messages and how they influence their engagement. We applied motivated reasoning to explore this in a national survey in England with 18- to 22-year-old British first-time voters, with data from 646 respondents presented in this article. Overall, our young partisans and non-voters employed motivated reasoning – (de)selection and critical appraisal – in their ad processing, thereby advancing understanding of how youth process attack election advertising. Concerns surrounding the use of attack election advertising emerge, suggesting the need for greater appraisal of the relevance of marketing in the development of election campaign strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this special edition, the editors have asked us to consider how political marketing has been used in the 2010 British Election, how it is evolving, and the prospects for its future use. We do this with specific reference to the attack advertising employed. Having empirically investigated British Election advertising campaigns since 1997, we also offer contrasts with 1997, 2001, and 2005. In evaluating the use of attack advertising in elections, we reveal how its future needs to be significantly different from its past. In this paper, we begin by examining some of the central contextual issues that were purported to inform the campaigns, and that also influenced public opinion towards parties, leaders, and voting itself. We then present the core arguments that both support and reject the use of attack advertising in election campaigns. We then move on to present detailed accounts of the advertising campaigns for the Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat parties - using a combination of primary interview and secondary data. Our evaluation of these campaigns focuses on the consequences of attack advertising for political engagement and trust, and thus the reputation of political marketing. This analysis will also include comparisons with the 1997, 2001, and 2005 elections. The paper will conclude by considering the future of political advertising in British elections - as it is theorised and practised in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an empirical investigation of young partisan first-time voter attitudes toward the use of negative attack advertising in a British general election. Partisanship, particularly in relation to negative advertising and third-party effects, is significantly under-researched, yet it advances understanding of youth electoral interaction. Our study confirms that young British partisans are not passive recipients of information, but are actively involved in information processing, interpretation, and counter arguing. Our findings also highlight a third-party effect among young partisans in their evaluation of the attack advertising. Overall our young partisans broadly reject image-attack election ads, which raises a “health warning” on its use in future election campaigning. The findings of this study are of significant interest to election campaign strategists in their planning for future elections and to political researchers striving to advance understanding within the field of political marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The tenets of democracy appear to be facing a crisis in modern western societies, as trust in public figures and institutions—including politicians and government—declines and distrust of them increases. This decline is particularly visible in the cynical attitudes and non-voting behaviour of British young people. This paper presents a more contemporary conceptualisation of trust and distrust, from which four segments of young voters and non-voters emerge. A mix of calculative, predictive and identification trust-building strategies are applied to these four segments to reinforce their trust and reduce their distrust, thereby reconnecting them with parliamentary politics. This paper concludes with an agenda for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]