Study: Advertising Bosses Australia’s LEAST Trusted Profession

A new poll into the most trusted professions is all bad news for adland, with advertising executives voted the least trusted profession in Australia.

The global poll by market research firm Ipsos and called the Global Trust in Professions survey found that only eight per cent of those surveyed agreed that ad execs could be trusted. A further 55 per cent voted them as untrustworthy leaving the profession on the bottom of the trustworthy list.

It wasn’t great news for journalists either, the profession voted the sixth least trustworthy profession in Australia with just 17 per cent of respondents agreeing they could be trusted.

Doctors held Australia’s most trusted job, with 69 per cent agreeing they could be trusted. Followed by scientists (62 per cent) and teachers (60 per cent). Check out Australia’s most/least trustworthy professions in the chart below:

Screen Shot 2019-09-19 at 9.08.06 am The Ipsos Global Trust in Professions survey, completed online by adults aged 16-74 in 22 countries including Australia, showed that while the most trustworthy profession varies across the countries covered, there is greater agreement on the professions considered to be untrustworthy. In all countries polled, politicians are seen as the most untrustworthy profession – globally, two thirds of the public consider politicians generally to be untrustworthy (67 per cent) and almost six in 10 say the same about government ministers (57 per cent).

Australia is one of only nine countries that had a positive score on the Global Trustworthiness Index. The Index looks at the net trust score (the difference between the proportion considering a profession trustworthy and the proportion considering a profession untrustworthy).

When it came to the global results, scientists were voted as the most trusted profession and politicians came last. Globally, ad executives were the third least trusted profession with only 13 per cent of respondents agreeing ad makers could be trusted. Check out the global table below:

Screen Shot 2019-09-19 at 9.12.16 am

Commenting on the findings, David Elliott, director, Ipsos Australia Social Research Institute, said: “It has been said that we are losing faith in experts. This study shows that in fact, scientists are held in high esteem both here and in Australia.

“The high levels of trust placed in many professions of crucial importance to our society are encouraging as they indicate that we don’t think society is completely broken. We still have a lot of trust in many important professions, like doctors, teachers, the armed forces and the police. What is more concerning for us as a society are the low levels of trust in politicians, government ministers, bankers, journalists, clergy/priests and business leaders.

“Encouragingly for my colleagues and industry, while pollsters sit at the bottom on trustworthiness this looks to be more a result of many being undecided rather a strong sense of untrustworthiness. When we look at the proportions indicating a profession is untrustworthy, pollsters soar to 8th position as the most untrustworthy well behind politicians, government ministers, advertising executives, bankers, clergy/priests, journalists and lawyers.”

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