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Attitudes towards UK advertising have improved, with 55% of the public saying they trust the industry, a new survey from the Advertising Association has shown.

The study showed trust in the sector in 2020 was at an all-time high, having rallied from a low of just 44% in 2015.

But despite the improvement, there is still “unmistakable evidence to show that advertising has a clear public trust problem”, according to AA think tank Credos, which carried out the survey as part of wider research. 

In 2020, the public’s trust in other industries, which included banking/finance, retail/shopping, music, phone/mobile technology, gaming, energy and media, was much higher on average, at a record 72%.

In a report released today to coincide with the AA’s summit on the issue, Credos said: “The other industries that we are being compared to have seen a similar improvement, and thus advertising’s relative position hasn’t changed, with the gap between the average of all other industries tested and the advertising industry at around 17% since 2017.”

The research revealed that public trust in the sector in 2021 is still influenced mostly by advertising’s benefits – largely its entertainment value and social contribution – which chimed with the think tank’s findings in 2018 when it last carried out the study.

As with 2018, bombardment of ads is the next most influential factor. However, in 2021 “suspicious” advertising, which includes misleading claims, body image issues, intrusive and unclear information, was ranked much higher than in 2018, becoming the third-most important factor.

This has been driven by younger age groups, with 18- to 34-year-olds seeing it as the most important reason for a lack of trust in ads.

The report stated: “Misleading advertising was often felt to be directly attributable to social media and perhaps goes some way to explaining the growth in importance of this factor in impacting trust for younger consumers. Advertising on social media was associated for many with misleading or false claims alongside advertising that was unclear or even disguised.”

Regulation of advertising should be promoted more widely to help tackle the problems, according to the report, which found only 12% of the public are aware of the Advertising Standards Authority.

The research found a “consistent correlation” between those who trust the advertising industry and those who believe that there is an appropriate level of regulation in advertising.

“Conversely, those who believe that there isn’t enough regulation in advertising tend to be the most distrusting of advertising,” the report added. 

Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the AA, said: “The public’s trust in our work isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have and has been central to the Advertising Association’s work these past three years. 

“Working with AA members across the industry, we have focused on delivering a ‘Trust Action Plan’ to arrest the decline of public trust in advertising. As all the evidence shows, trust pays, with better returns on campaigns and better long-term value for the brands they support.”

The AA will run a UK-wide awareness campaign, beginning in the autumn and continuing into 2022, to promote the ASA’s role in ensuring ads are “legal, decent, honest and truthful”.

A similar campaign it carried out in Scotland as a pilot in 2020 resulted in people who saw or heard the ads being two-thirds more likely to trust the ad industry than those who did not, and 50% more likely to trust most ads.