Honesty in advertising? Hmmm.
In answering, "How often, if ever, do you trust that advertising is honest in its claims?,” a new poll shows only one in five adults (19 percent) say they do, finds Grumpy Editor.
What’s more, older adults are somewhat more suspicious than younger people, according to an Adweek Media/Harris Poll that surveyed 2,098 adults online between Oct. 5 and 7 by Harris Interactive.
While 90 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 years old say they trust advertising is honest in its claims at least sometimes, that figure dwindles to 86 percent of those 55 years old or more.
On the brighter side, 65 percent of those polled say advertising is sometimes honest in its claims.
But just over one in 10 say they never trust advertising claims.
(That would trigger an all-day meeting of partners in “Mad Men,” the TV series dealing with Madison Ave. in the 1960s.)
When polled on what methods they would trust to ensure advertising is honest in its claims, Americans are split.
Three out of 10 (29 percent) say they would give government regulation a nod to ensure advertising is honest in its claims, while about one quarter (23 percent) say they would trust self-regulation by advertisers and the industry more.
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