We Coded 2,500 UK General Election Adverts - Here’s What We Learned

POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2023 The 2019 General Election saw an unprecedented deluge of online political advertising. A remarkable 53 per cent of all election spending on advertising was spent on digital platforms. With the next general election coming into view there are growing calls to reform political advertising and end deceptive campaign practices, particularly online. Just five years on from Cambridge Analytica, there is still concern that online political advertising can be manipulative, misleading and problematic for democracy. And yet, whilst people are familiar with stories of personality profiled ads and voter suppression activities, when we think about our own experience of political advertising on platforms such as Facebook, it’s rare to recall particularly concerning practices. This raises an important question: exactly how is political advertising being used in elections? To answer this question, we created a research team at the University of Sheffield composed of staff and students. Working together, we coded over 2,500 Facebook adverts placed by national political party accounts, party leaders and ‘satellite campaign’ groups – which are non-party groups promoting particular electoral outcomes – during the 2019 General We Coded 2,500 UK General Election Adverts – Here’s What We Learned