Skip to content
1981
Volume 8, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2633-3732
  • E-ISSN: 2633-3740

Abstract

One of the most common ways politicians are portrayed in political advertising is with a friendly, smiling face to persuade the voters to cast their votes on him/her on Election Day. This archetypical image of politicians can be found around the globe even if research shows that smiling faces of politicians to some extent are connected to national and party culture. This article takes the theoretical point of departure in rhetoric and seeks to analyse the use of smile as a way to build ethos in relation to the electorate. The analysis builds on a dataset that consists of more than 3000 Swedish election posters from 1907 to 2019 and tracks the use of the smile as facial expression on posters to the late 1960s. Before that, politicians always put up a serious facial expression on posters. After the breakthrough, the smiling politician has become the dominant portrayal of Swedish politicians on election posters in contemporary politics. The explanation of this development is related to the personalization and intimization of politics, which to a large extent was due to the advent of television. However, a general questioning of authorities and a more equal society are probably also important drivers. There are signs of similar developments in other countries, but the authors call for more studies to validate the results.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jvpc_00013_1
2020-05-01
2024-10-12
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Benoit, W.. ( 2019;), ‘ A functional analysis of visual and verbal symbols in presidential campaign posters, 1828–2012: Functional analysis of visual and verbal symbols. ’, Presidential Studies Quarterly, 49:1, pp. 422.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Carlsson, T., and Håkansson, N.. ( forthcoming 2022;), ‘ Visual personalization in the 2019 EU election campaign. ’, in E. Novelli,, B. Johansson, and D. Wring. (eds), Cham:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Chanay, H. C. de. ( 2006;), ‘ Pouvoir des images d’avant le pouvoir: De l’éthos dans les portraits des candidats à l’élection présidentielle 2002 en France. ’, Semiotica, 159:1, pp. 15177.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Ekman, P., and Friesen, W. V.. ( 2003), Unmasking the Face, Cambridge, MA:: Malor Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Gervereau, L.. ( 1991), La propagande par l’affiche, Paris:: Syros;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Håkansson, N.,, Johansson, B., and Vigsø, O.. ( 2014), Politik i det offentliga rummet, Stockholm:: Carlssons;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Hansen, J. H., and Hansen, K. M.. ( 2018), Mobiliseringseksperimenter ved kommunalvalget 2017, CVAP Working Paper Series Bind 4/2018, Copenhagen:: Center for Valg og Partier, Institut for Statskundskab, Københavns Universitet;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Holtz-Bacha, C., and Johansson, B.. (eds) ( 2017a), Election Posters around the World: Political Campaigning in the Public Space, Cham:: Springer International;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Holtz-Bacha, C., and Johansson, B.. ( 2017b;), ‘ Introduction. ’, in C. Holtz-Bacha, and B. Johansson. (eds), Election Posters around the World: Political Campaigning in the Public Space, Cham:: Springer International;, pp. 112.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Johansson, B.. ( 2020;), ‘ Campaigning for Europe: Election posters in the 2014 European elections. ’, in L. Berg. (ed), Contested Community, Gothenburg:: CERGU, University of Gothenburg;, pp. 6372.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Manstead, T.. ( 2019;), ‘ When did humans start to smile?. ’, The British Academy, https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/when-did-humans-start-smile/. Accessed 7 January 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. McAllister, I.. ( 2007;), ‘ The personalization of politics. ’, in R. J. Dalton, and H. D. Klingemann. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;, pp. 57188.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Miner, J. B.. ( 1971;), ‘ Changes in student attitudes toward bureaucratic role prescriptions during the 1960s. ’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 16:3, pp. 35164.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Nedergaard, P., and Schanz, E. A.. ( 2015), Valget er dit: Den danske valgplakat i 100 år, Århus:: Dansk Plakatmuseum and Historika;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Novelli, E., and Johansson, B.. (eds) ( 2019), 2019 European Elections Campaign: Images, Topics, Media in the 28 Member States, Brussels:: Directorate-General for Communication, European Parliament and University Roma Tre;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Pöttering, H. G.. (ed.) ( 2015), Politik in Plakaten: Plakatgeschichte der CDU aus acht Jahrzehnten, Bonn:: Bouvier Verlag;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Sülflow, M., and Maurer, M.. ( 2019;), ‘ The power of smiling: How politicians’ displays of happiness affect viewers’ gaze behavior and political judgments. ’, in A. Veneti,, D. Jackson, and D. Lilleker. (eds), Visual Political Communication, Cham:: Palgrave Macmillan;, pp. 20724.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Thompson, J. B.. ( 1995), The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media, Stanford, CA:: Stanford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Vigsø, O.. ( 2017;), ‘ The visual construction of personal ethos in election posters. ’, The Poster, 4:1&2, pp. 3157.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Johansson, Bengt, and Vigsø, Orla. ( [2020] 2022;), ‘ The smiling politician: The visual rhetoric of party leaders on Swedish election posters. ’, Journal of Visual Political Communication, 8:1, pp. 87103, https://doi.org/10.1386/jvpc_00013_1
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jvpc_00013_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jvpc_00013_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error