The first time for everything: political advertising in a new member state

This chapter explores the 2014 European Parliament election campaign in Croatia as a new member state of the European Union (EU). In 2014, Croatian political parties competed for the first time in the context of EU-wide elections to represent Croatia as an EU member state in the European Parliament. The campaign in 2014 lasted from 7 April until 24 May 2014, the longest ever campaign in Croatian electoral history. Competing for 11 seats in the European Parliament were 25 lists consisting of single parties or coalitions. In total, 17 out of those 25 lists did not produce any traditional promotional materials (posters and commercials). Furthermore, of the 11 candidates ultimately elected to the European Parliament, only one featured in a television spot. Therefore, the sample for analysis of political advertising in the 2014 elections in Croatia included in the overall content analysis for this book is quite modest, although that is not to say that the findings are not of interest.