U-S Adults' Attitudes to Advertising Appear to be Worsening

How do American adults feel about advertising? Not quite as good as they did a few years ago, according to a report from YouGov. While changes haven’t been drastic, survey results indicate that fewer adults agree that advertising helps them choose what they buy, while more feel that ads are a waste of time.

The report compared American’s attitudes to ads in late December 2023 with their attitudes in late December 2019. The results show that 46% of adults recently agreed that advertising helps them choose what they buy, down slightly from 49% in December 2019.

Along with that, there’s been a small rise in the share who agreed that they think ads are a waste of time (53%, up from 48%) and that they don’t trust the ads on TV (52%, up from 49%).

Digging into how these results differ by age bracket, the data shows that there’s a clear age-related skew to some. It’s somewhat encouraging given marketers’ focus on youth that 18-34-year-olds are the most likely to agree that advertising helps them choose what they buy (59%). However, with only about half as many (30%) adults ages 65 and over agreeing, marketers might be missing out on the consumers with access to the most spending power. In fact, recent research indicates that 6 in 10 adults ages 55+ feel they’re not accurately represented in marketing and advertising, and another study shows they lack much representation in TV and video ads at all.

Perhaps of even more concern is the deterioration in attitudes among older adults. The 30% of those 65 and older who recently said ads help them choose what to buy is down from 44% in 2019. Likewise, the 33% of respondents ages 50-64 agreeing with ads’ influence represents a drop from 46% in 2019.

Meanwhile, YouGov’s research presents somewhat conflicting results. Whereas older adults are the least likely to say that advertising influences their purchase choices, they’re also the least likely to agree that they think ads are a waste of time (45%), with younger adults instead the most apt to concur (60%).

There’s no clear correlation between age and the likelihood to not trust ads on TV. However, and not surprisingly, there’s a significant disparity when it comes to attitudes towards online advertising. Fully 59% of 18-34-year-olds agree that they’re more likely to engage with ads on social media than on regular websites, a figure that drops with each successive age bracket, to just 14% of respondents ages 65 and up.

Preference for social media ads has risen especially among 18-34-year-olds (59%, up from 51%) and 35-49-year-olds (45%, up from 37%), while remaining relatively unchanged among older age groups.

YouGov segments respondents into “ad accepting” (those who agree that advertising helps them choose what they buy) and “ad averse” (those who disagree). In examining the leisure activities of both groups, the report indicates the “ad accepting” group is more likely than those averse to ads to enjoy entertainment activities such as going to movie theaters and to comedy shows. The “ad averse” group, for its part, is more likely than the ad accepting one to enjoy cultural activities, such as going to restaurants, cafes, museums, and historical sites and attractions.

Finally, among the “ad accepting” group, 82% agree that they like seeing real looking people in ads and 75% agree that if a brand they like expresses a view they agree with in ads, they’re more likely to buy from that brand. Some 72% agree that they like when companies have a moral message, and 7 in 10 agree that sponsorship can help keep companies socially relevant.

For more, check out the full results here.