A qualitative case exploration of the use of image political advertising in the Taiwanese presidential election of 2000

By 'image' advertising we refer to television and press advertising that applies brand marketing techniques to political campaigns. Such advertising tends to contain appealing imagery and symbolism rather than factual, policy-based appeals. In the Taiwanese presidential election of 2000 the main opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party, used image advertising on TV before their widely unexpected victory. This was a major departure for the DPP who until then were typically associated with poorly resourced, controversial but ineffective election advertising. This paper examines the Taiwanese political context and briefly reviews relevant research literature before discussing this particular case of political advertising. The paper adopts a mixed interpretive approach drawing on a quantitative analysis of poll data, a qualitative focus group and secondary sources to seek insights into the voter impact this image political advertisement may have had