ABSTRACT
The important role of television in political campaigns has been demonstrated and analyzed in the political communication literature. Juxtaposed to other forms of television coverage such as newscasts, debates, or interviews on talk shows, political broadcasts are a unique phenomenon: political parties and the candidates determine the form and content of the campaign through paid advertising. A review of the literature on the images of women used in Israeli advertising reveals basic exploitation of female stereotypes as sex objects. They are portrayed as helpless, dependent, ineffectual, emotional, vulnerable, subordinate, childish and plain stupid. All broadcasts of the 1988 election campaign were recorded on videocassettes. The qualitative analyses focused on those broadcasts that featured women as main characters, and/or issues of primary concern to women. In these political broadcasts women served the following roles: women as persuaders, women as party leaders, women as politicians, the nurturing women, the equal-rights women and the exceptional women.
