Ad Reps Have (Slightly) Better Public Trust Than Lawmakers

Trust plays a key role in purchase decisions. And so it is that it’s hard to imagine consumers trusting advertising much when they trust advertisers so little. In fact, there’s been a drastic drop – from an already low point – in consumers’ trust in advertising practitioners’ honesty and ethics, according to the latest annual examination of integrity in industries from Gallup.

Indeed, just 8% of American adults rate the honesty and ethical standards of advertising practitioners as “very high” (1%) or “high” (7%), according to this latest survey. That’s down considerably from 15% who said the same last year, and is the lowest share reporting those levels of trust since 2007 (6%). It appears that the public’s perception of advertising practitioners’ integrity has spiraled again after last year’s mark was the highest in at least 15 years.

Meanwhile, the 8% who have a high trust in advertising professionals is heavily outweighed by the almost-half (49%) who have either “low” (34%) or “very low” (15%) trust in them. That’s up from 41% last year and is a higher level of distrust than is held for car salespeople.

Unlike last year, when women reported more trust in advertising practitioners than men, this year both groups report the same amount, with 8% each saying their trust is “very high” or “high.” What has remained consistent from last year’s results is that non-White respondents (11%) are far more likely than White respondents (6%) to rate the honesty and ethical standards of advertising practitioners as “very high” or “high.” This despite the marketing and advertising industry remaining far from diverse in its leadership and also allocating only a fraction of its spending to multicultural media.

Meanwhile, in another discouraging development for the advertising industry, only 8% of young adults ages 18-34 rate advertising practitioners’ integrity highly, plummeting from 23% who did so last year.

Overall, the five most trusted professions for honesty and ethics (among those tested in this latest edition) are:

• 
  Nurses (78% rating as “very high” or “high”);
• Veterinarians (65%);
• Engineers (60%);
• Dentists (59%); and
• Medical doctors (56%).

Trust in journalists remains low, with 19% reporting “high” or “very high” trust, down from 23% last year. And the public’s view of business executives has dropped again – only 12% of respondents gave business executives’ ethics and honesty high marks, compared to 14% last year.

Finally, the lowest-rated profession of those analyzed are members of Congress. Just 6% of respondents gave them a “high” or “very high” rating for honesty and ethics.

If there’s a silver lining for advertising practitioners, it’s that they weren’t the only to suffer a fall in ratings this year – every profession save for one (labor union leaders) saw their perceptions fare worse.

However, none dropped as much as advertising practitioners…

A summary of the findings from Gallup can be viewed here.