As Australians prepare for another federal election, new research reveals a sobering reality: trust in political advertising and messaging has plummeted to unprecedented lows and this needs to change, argues free.studio founder Michael McConville.
The findings, drawn from the latest “Political Advertising Thought Leadership” survey conducted in April 2025 by Ideally, suggest that the erosion of trust is not only deep and widespread, but is also making every election cycle more complex and fraught for voters. Part of the problem is simple; Australians Overwhelmingly Distrust Political Ads.
The research paints an alarming picture. When asked how often respondents feel political advertising is misleading or deceptive, the most frequent response was “Often.”
This sentiment is particularly pronounced among older Australians, with 85% of those aged 75 and above reporting frequent deception. Even in states with relatively lower distrust, such as Victoria, concern remains significant, highlighting the national scale of the problem. Only 1-2% of respondents said they “never” find political ads deceptive, underscoring the rarity of genuine trust in political messaging.
When only a tiny fraction of Australians say they trust political ads, it’s clear we’re facing a crisis. Especially when such a large part of the electorate expect things to get worse, without any significant change.
We live in a progressive society where we have advanced consumer protections for all other forms of advertising. But the decisions we make in relation to our political choices aren’t protected in the same way. We might be making our political decisions based on widely spread untruths. And these untruths – or if we speak plainly, political lies – aren’t accidents.
Advertising doesn’t happen in-the-moment, and incidentally. This work is planned, produced and takes time to spread. So, when a ‘fact’ is dropped into these ads and it turns out to be slightly untrue, that was intentional.
It’s actually easier to get this stuff right, than wrong, which is the tell-tale sign that I think we can comfortably call much of this, lying.
Several factors are clearly contributing to this collapse in trust with the most obvious being that politicians are legally allowed to lie in their advertising. The Ideally Research found that only 45% of Australians are somewhat aware of this legal gap, with awareness highest among older Australians and lowest in Queensland and among women. This double standard fuels cynicism and frustration.
A significant 65% of respondents also believe political misinformation in advertising will increase by 2028 if nothing changes, with younger adults (18-34) expressing even greater concern-up to 82% anticipate a worsening trend. The rise of AI-powered, highly targeted ‘dark ads’ on social media platforms appear to be a source of that mistrust in younger audiences due to their ability to spread unchecked, often escaping public scrutiny and fact-checking.
Oversight by the Australian Electoral Commission is limited to the official campaign period, leaving a regulatory vacuum outside of those times. And even then through this election, plainly misleading youtube ads, pamphlet drops and even mainstream TV advertising has run for weeks at a time, before being taken down due to the false and misleading nature of the advertisings content.
Despite overwhelming public support – almost nine in ten Australians (89%) want truth in political advertising laws – federal legislation has stalled in Parliament multiple times. South Australia and the ACT have enacted such laws, but there is still no national standard.
Which is concerning many industry insiders as sixty percent of Australians believe the issue of political advertising misinformation is actually “getting worse”. And it appears, the more experience of elections a person has, the more likely they are to more easily see the steep decline.
This widespread mistrust is making elections more complicated for ordinary Australians. It’s easier for politicians to say what they want, and harder to real people to work out what’s real and what’s not. That’s what at stake here; people’s confidence and trust in their own abilities to choose what’s real and what’s total nonsense.
This week, I have led a call alongside Independent MP, Zali Steggall OAM, to rally the advertising community, as well as marketers and real people to start applying pressure on MP’s themselves to bring about change. First, as part of a new voluntary Ethical Political Advertising Code.
Of course, I think legislation should be changed, and far quicker than the thinking currently goes. As things stand – at best – the bill put forward to change the legislation wouldn’t be bought into working practice until after the 2028 election. That’s not quick enough, or good enough. There are multiple ways to introduce a working model, and I’d like to see a fresh commitment to speedy change, that is then actually delivered. There are plenty of us in this community who would give time and energy to making the right change, that can be managed.
One such model is already in place in South Australia, which has had such laws since the 1980s, and the ACT has followed suit. These laws make it an offence to publish materially inaccurate and misleading electoral ads, overseen by the electoral commission. The experience in these jurisdictions shows that such laws are feasible and effective, encouraging parties to scrutinise their own messaging for accuracy.
Independent adjudication is another way to speed-up change which would involve establishing an independent umpire-panel to assess the truthfulness of political ads. This is similar to the role played by advertising standards bodies in other sectors, already.
Australians are crying out for honesty and transparency. It’s time for Parliament to listen and act before trust in our democracy is damaged beyond repair.
With trust in political advertising at its lowest ebb, the message from the electorate is clear: Australians want and deserve better. The solutions are within reach but require political will and leadership.
The homework marking is already underway.
