Political Marketing - Joyful Political Campaign

This study unfolds in two stages: thematic qualitative (Study 1) and PLS-SEM analyses (Study 2). Study 1 explores codes and themes to define a joyful political campaign (n = 398). These insights become the foundation for developing a structural model, which is subsequently tested in Study 2 (n = 1,732). Study 1 identifies seventeen items describing joyful political campaigns, highlighting their perceived impact related to voters’ well-being and virtues (positive affect, peaceful mind, and moral characters), social interactions (amicable society and social cohesion), and candidates’ evaluations (attitude and image). Study 2 validates these relationships, demonstrating positive impacts on political behavior and how skepticism toward the joyful campaigns harms candidates’ evaluations. This study suggests the positive role of joyful political campaigns to counteract political polarization and foster a more constructive political environment. It is the first study that develops the joyful political campaign model and tests it in the context of Indonesia's presidential elections in 2024