This article presents a content analysis of the British party election broa
dcasts (PEBs) aired by the Conservative and Labour Parties during the 1992
and 1997 general elections. Using "videostyle" a content analysis catagoric
al framework that measures components of verbal, nonverbal, and production
techniques, several revealing findings are presented in this article. Among
the more interesting findings is the increased tendency for the British el
ectoral advertising to follow the American example in terms of negativity a
nd heightened personalization. In addition, the trend during the period was
toward greater use of commercial advertising techniques in PEBs as part of
a more concerted communication strategy. As a result, PEBs are now the sub
ject of news and are part of a wider debate on the role of media in elector
al politics. The 1997 PEBs placed greater focus on the party leaders than t
he 1992 PEBs, particularly in the case of Tony Blair's role in the 1997 Lab
our PEBs. The dominant negative nature of the FEB, while on the rise, also
appears to present more direct, hard-hitting, personal attacks at the oppos
ing party and party leaders. Furthermore, like their U.S. counterparts, PEB
s are dominated by discussion of policy issues. However, despite the greate
r length of the PEBs, there were many missed opportunities for specific pol
icy proposal presentation.