Constantin Basturea pointed me (via Twitter) to Gallup’s latest annual rating of the images of 25 business and industry sectors:
Americans have rated most business and industry sectors more negatively over time, particularly since 2003. A detailed Gallup analysis shows that six sectors have the dubious distinction of both low ratings this year and major drops in rankings over the last four years: the federal government, the oil and gas industry, the real estate industry, electric and gas utilities, the healthcare industry, and the pharmaceutical industry. Americans have lost more faith in the federal government over the last four years than any other industry sector tested, paralleling the decline in President George W. Bush’s job approval ratings over that time.
And how did the advertising and public relations industry fare? Its scores: positive 35%, neutral 29% and negative 34%. Based on this industry’s “net positive” rating of 1 — which is the difference between the percentage of positive responses and the percentage of negative answers — it ranked 15th.
The advertising and PR industry doesn’t have the worst image, but it certainly has a lot of room for improvement. Ironic how the image industry can’t even maintain its own.