Election posters in Finland: Cueing emotions with visual imagery

Abstract

This chapter has a twofold objective. Firstly, it provides a review of election posters as a campaign medium in Finland, dealing with regulation, effects, and evolution. The observation that visual imagery has become increasingly important in Finnish election posters leads to the second objective, which is to empirically explore the use across time of a specific visual emotional cue in the posters: child imagery. The chapter identifies a paradox: although the review shows that the content, rhetoric, and style of Finnish party posters have changed significantly across time, the analysis of child imagery points to considerable consistency. Across time, the share of posters depicting children has been stable, and there are enduring themes in the use of child imagery.