The Continuing Debate on Political Advertising: Toward a Jeopardy Theory of Political Advertising as Regulated Speech

The authors propose that political candidate advertising as a unique form of political speech is in jeopardy of losing its constitutional protection under the First Amendment. Despite the growth of political advertising as a political marketing technique and new legal freedoms for commercial advertising, the paper develops a “jeopardy theory” from seven socio-political variables which independently and cumulatively threaten political advertising's protected status.