The Convergence of Political and Government Advertising: Theory versus Practice

Abstract

Although they are sometimes confused, in theory government and political advertising are separate and quite distinct. By convention, government advertising — paid for directly by taxpayers — is to be used only for necessary government information campaigns which are neutral in nature and not liable to be perceived as creating a partisan benefit for the ruling party. By contrast, political advertising occurs predominantly during elections, is paid for by political parties or candidates, and is necessarily partisan, persuasive and usually highly emotive in nature. However, in the past two decades these distinctions have broken down. This paper explores the growing links between the two types of advertising at the federal level and concludes that there is a vast gap between the theory and reality of government advertising.