The attitude of young voters towards political advertising campaigns: A comparative study on the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential Election

Political marketing is of great importance in analyzing political activities such as elections, leader or party politics, and voter behavior. Political advertising as political marketing communication is an integral part of election campaigns in contemporary politics. This thesis focuses on the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential elections within the scope of political marketing and advertising. The phenomenon of "entertainment politics", which has recently emerged with the addition of entertainment elements to politics, has become important for political marketing and advertising and has taken its place in Ukrainian politics with the election of the comedian Zelensky, who competed against Poroshenko, a traditional politician, in the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential elections. This study, which uses quantitative research methods, reveals the political marketing and advertising strategies implemented by two different candidates carrying traditional and entertainment politics and the differences between them. As a result of the research, significant differences were found between Poroshenko and Zelensky, who had different positions, in terms of advertising, media, message strategies and other elements. In general, Poroshenko carried out a traditional political campaign using his rationality, while comedian Zelensky reflected his sense of humor in his own campaign.