Trust me

Trust me

Up until the age of 18 I wanted to be a journalist. Then I saw the amazing Levi’s 501 launderette TV commercial featuring Nick Kamen and decided that advertising had to be the career (and 501s had to be the jeans) for me. I applied for several roles, was eventually successful and spent my adult life working in advertising agencies.

Over the years I got used to various bits of ribbing about terrible commercials or friends telling me they pay no attention to ads, despite them being dressed in branded labels and driving expensive German cars.

That stuff I could handle. But the bi-annual survey of trusted professions by Ipsos MORI did sting. In a recent survey of British adults, advertising executives ranked bottom of a list of 30 professions.

Below politicians

Below estate agents

Below landlords

Below bankers

From the list presented, there was literally no profession which British adults could think of which was less trustworthy than working in advertising. I knew pretty early on in my life that I wasn’t going to be a surgeon or an aid worker or a teacher. However, it’s one thing to not be at the top of the trusted list, but it’s quite another to be right at the bottom.

Every so often I go online and watch the Levi’s ad again.

It’s still brilliant, even if everyone reading this doesn’t trust my opinion 😊