How can adland keep the public's trust in a post-truth world?

Trust has always been hard to win and easy to lose, but now it has hit crisis point.

From AI deepfakes to the Elon Musk-inspired trend for social media platforms to remove third-party fact-checkers – discerning fake news from reality is becoming harder than ever. This has created upheaval for the media industry, amid concern it poses legal, political and public health risks. 

At first glance, the picture for advertising appears comparatively reassuring. Think tank Credos’ most recent Trust tracker, highlights that trust in ads has risen from 36 per cent to 39 per cent over the past 12 months. But what could the future hold, and how can brands maintain the public’s trust?

To discuss exactly that, the Advertising Association’s LEAD 2025 in partnership with the Advertising Association, IBSA and the ASA organised a panel made up of Ogilvy UK’s group chief executive James Murphy, Channel 4’s chief commercial officer Rak Patel and adam&eveDDB CEO Miranda Hipwell.

‘Trust is being eroded day by day, hour by hour’

Trust in online platforms has remained low, but it has been growing among younger generations – a trend Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon raised in a stern speech. “Our industry stands at a crossroads. The next generation’s trust in media is waning, and it is up to us to turn the tide,” she warned.

The ‘Gen Z Trust and Truth Study’ which Mahon referred to, shows that while 58 per cent of 13-to-27-year-olds trust their friends' social media posts, just 43 per cent trust the BBC. They are also more likely to trust influencers (42 per cent), compared to other generations aged 28 to 65 (8 per cent).

For Hipwell, this is concerning: “We’re now in this macro picture which is nothing like we’ve seen before in terms of how trust and truth are being eroded day by day hour by hour,” she says.

But overall, Credos’ Trust Tracker shows that television and cinema continue to be the most-trusted (43 per cent) media sources across generations, followed by radio, news and magazine media, and out-of-home.

“TV carries a superpower and that superpower is friction. Now that friction is the governance and regulation which ensures that the content we put across TV is a standard that creates trust from audiences and that can’t be overlooked at all,” Channel 4’s Rak Patel says.

Thinkbox’s Profitability 2 research found that TV is responsible for 54.7 per cent of the full advertising-generated profit. Moreover, the research claims that TV has the highest saturation point, meaning advertisers can increase investment in TV to a higher point and still achieve a return on investment.

Why agencies can be ‘an enduring foundation’

As brands “deliver across many more touchpoints with budgets that are increasingly finite”, Murphy highlights adland’s responsibility to be engaging and high quality.

“We need to ensure we’re dealing with the truth, even if we’re amplifying it – it should still be the truth. There’s that quantitative factual element but there’s also a qualitative element to trust, that’s our responsibility not to pollute people’s lives. If we simply create so much material - so much collateral - that it spreads out across people’s communications and digital lives, all we’re doing is hounding them,” he adds.

Hipwell refers to the Advertising Association’s Value of Trust report last year which claims that trust is now the second biggest driver of advertising effectiveness.

“There are big changes going on that mean that trust is even more vital than ever,” she says, adding that brands must ensure their products are of a high quality too. “We need to make sure that the services that brands and businesses are providing really uphold the promises that we are then talking about in our work and communications.”

Hipwell also highlights the role of craft, and developing emotional connections with audiences: “It’s not that AI doesn’t have a role to play but humans love to see the imprints of creativity and the human touch on the work we’re trying to sell”.

Asked about the role of CMO turnover she argues that agencies will only play a more crucial role as “the enduring foundation of the brand” as clients lean on them as a “trusted partner”.

To this, Murphy adds: “The challenging truth for a lot of marketers is that they exist in a more exposed and lonely position in their organisations than we do in ours, and they need trusted partners because sometimes they’re trying to convince stakeholders to make big calls on things”

The responsibility to inform and entertain remains central for advertisers: “We have to challenge ourselves to keep the quality high because our job isn’t to turn up and pollute people’s lives. If we can be beautiful or useful, even on a finite budget, then we’ll maintain and reinforce that,” Murphy surmises.