Abstract

This paper presents findings from a national survey of 'potential' time voters at the 2001 British general election, it investigates these young people's awareness of the advertising used by the main political parties during this election. Overall what emerges is a young electorate aware of the advertising, who were interested in the election itself and nearly half of whom say they voted in it. Consequently the findings reject the notion that young people are generically unaware of and disinterested in party political messages. In addition the findings indicate that the political parties' print advertisements -- to some degree -- are penetrating, the first layer of young people's message processing, suggesting they are a useful aid in capturing the youth vote.