Around 4 in 5 U.S. adults believe advertising is more manipulative than informative.
This sentiment has held steady in recent years, according to survey data from consumer research firm MRI-Simmons.
Gen Z shares this attitude, though its skepticism is a touch less pronounced than average.
Billboards, sponsored posts, and television commercials, however, can still work regardless of their content.
In a sense, a brand's ability to pay for advertising is itself a form of advertising. It implies the brand is credible and, if not yet generating a profit, backed by serious investors betting it will. It's a sign of stability.
Additional figures from MRI-Simmons show that more than 1 in 5 Americans believe brands that appear in ads are better in quality than brands that don't.
Agreement is higher among Gen Z shoppers: 29%.
This suggests the act of advertising alone has sway over a not-insignificant portion of the population. Beyond what its words and images are trying to communicate, an ad's mere existence sends a compelling message.
To be clear, not all brands that run advertising campaigns are superior in quality to those that don't. The point is that more than 1 in 5 consumers say this is how they perceive the world.
And, again, it's worth noting younger shoppers are both less skeptical of advertising and more inclined to associate it with quality goods and services.
It's a good reason to advertise, even if most people claim they don't trust what they're seeing and hearing.
