ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the political and electoral system of the Netherlands. This context, characterized by proportional representation, coalition formation and consensus seeking, offers a partial explanation for the limited presence of political advertising. The Netherlands has a bicameral parliamentary system. Political parties were very powerful political institutions and had also substantial influence and power over media in their own pillar. Political parties started to use websites as a means of communication and use it as a means to communicate and interact with potential voters. A specific online means of social targeting mentioned by political parties is ads via Google search. If an Internet user searches for certain keywords an ad for the PvdA appears as the first option in the search results. Political parties and candidates try to persuade voters in many different ways. Political actors adopt an extensive marketing mix to inform citizens, discuss policy issues and convince voters to vote for them.
