In recent public perception poll, ad practitioners rank just slightly better than Used Car Salesman and Members of Congress in terms of honesty, a fact which will no doubt invite an email from my mother:
Won’t mom be proud…
Keep in mind this poll was run by Gallup, who recently picked the wrong presidential candidate, but really, are a couple of percentage points really going to change things for ad folks?
I don’t think so either.
Sadly, ad folks actually rank behind stockbrockers (who collapsed the economy), Senators (who are trying to collapse the economy), and lawyers (who often compare unfavorably to sharks in humor circles).
Excellent.
Healthcare workers ranked consistently high, leading me to the obvious question; if you write copy for a hospital (or even better) a nursing college, does some of their honesty rub off?
Keep writing (and tell your mom you’re a novelist instead of a copywriter), Tom Chandler.
Oh COME on, now! HMO people are more trustworthy than us?
But I have to disagree with you, Tom. Freelance wordsmiths seem to be a mix of business executive and journalist, wouldn’t you agree? The finest blend of research, storytelling, and business smarts. So I think that puts us above state governors, wouldn’t you agree?
Rose(Quote) (Reply)
You might be right, but I prefer to aim higher than a midlister like a governor.
For that matter, how do we rank so far below psychiatrists? On one level we enable retail therapy, which is at least as effective as the $120/hour stuff…
TC(Quote) (Reply)
I don’t know, Tom.
I’m a (wannabe) writer, and I don’t trust me.
A. Wannabe Travelwriter recently posted..I flew to Portland (almost) naked. Thank goodness I wasn’t stuck in the snow.
A. Wannabe Travelwriter(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, but you’re a wannabe Travel writer whose deviancy is well documented. In other words, even in terms of an admittedly eclectic writer’s population, you ruin the curve…
TC(Quote) (Reply)
How do I know that you didn’t just make these numbers up?
Assuming that they are true (you’re mostly a former copywriter now, right?), it’s interesting that college teachers (I guess that means university profs too) only scored 53%. Why would you pay thousands of dollars a year if you don’t believe half of what your profs say?
~Graham
Graham Strong(Quote) (Reply)
Well duh. In addition to being untrustworthy, copywriters are widely recognized as lazy bastards. What are the odds I got it together enough to generate a fake table and stats?
Almost none.
Hell, I needed two doses of caffeine just to write this comment.
As for the college profs, all I can say polls also suggested 40%-50% of the US population feel climate change is a giant hoax, which should make me feel better about being a copywriter, but oddly doesn’t…
TC(Quote) (Reply)