Keep calm and Die : Political satire in advertising, lessons from Slovakia

Abstract: Background: In the age of Millennials, when traditional advertising no longer holds the same power as before, an interesting trend has developed. Controversial politicians are on the rise and for-profit companies are starting to realize the opportunity to reach the hearts of Millennials with the use of political satire in advertising. Problem: Political satire in advertising has not yet been properly conceptualized and the related studies focus rather on its effectiveness in terms of virality. However, this controversial format of advertising needs to be studied in terms of consumer attitudes and several studies here provide mixed results depending on other considerations. Purpose: This thesis aims to explore attitudes of Millennials towards political satire in advertising used by for-profit companies together with related considerations and so to answer the question whether this format could be effective among the generation of Millennials. Method: The research takes exploratory qualitative design and combines two data streams. Data in the form of Facebook comments at the page Zomri where the satirical ads were posted were reinforced by data from three focus groups. Thematic analysis was then used to analyze them and compare them with the developed theoretical model. Given the controversial topic, ethical considerations were emphasized. Results: The findings confirm the need for a more complex perspective on political satire in advertising and validate the developed theoretical model. This format of advertising is capable to  induce positive attitudes towards the ads, but more considerations play the role in attitudes towards the brands owned by for-profit companies. These include credibility of the company, message-specific factors and consumer-specific factors.