Members of the 果冻传媒n, please contact us at aa@adassoc.org.uk to access more insights from this research and find out how the new Trust Action Plan is being developed.

London, February 5 2026: New research highlights presented today in Westminster by Dan Wilks, Director of industry think tank Credos, at advertising industry summit LEAD, showed that whilst overall trust levels are high, beneath the surface people have an increasingly contradictory relationship with advertising. Key findings included the fact that trust in advertising is now impacted by negative elements of the online world often unrelated to ads, such as scams, cyber-attacks and harmful content 鈥� meaning many people now move through online spaces in a state of low-level vigilance

Key stats from the Credos 2025 full year Trust Tracker:

• The Credos Trust Tracker showed that public trust in ads continued to grow throughout 2025, reaching the highest level recorded over the past 5 years (40%), up from 31% in 2021.
• Over the same period, trust has also increased across all media channels
• Just over one in ten (11%) people are very trusting of ads and 29% are fairly trusting compared to a quarter (25%) who distrust ads and a third (33%) who are neither trusting nor distrusting.

Key findings from the new Credos Drivers of Trust research include:

• Overall, the importance of positives vs negatives in driving trust in advertising was exactly 50/50 in 2025
• The importance of 鈥榮uspicious advertising鈥� advertising in driving distrust increased significantly in 2025. This includes issues such as scams, misleading ads, undisclosed ads, greenwashing, and the manipulation of images.
• The enjoyment of ads remained the number one driver of trust in ads and bombardment remained the number one driver of distrust.

Whose responsibility is it anyway?

The Credos qualitative research also dug under the surface of who people thought should be responsible for tackling the negative impact issues such as scams and misleading ads are having on trust in online advertising. Participants attribute joint responsibility for managing these issues to platforms, to individual responsibility, regulatory bodies and government, though the role of the platforms was considered the most important.

Director of Credos Dan Wilks said: 鈥淚t is fantastic to see public trust in ads reach the highest levels we鈥檝e seen in five years. This should be celebrated – but there is still much for the industry to work on. Our latest research found that people鈥檚 day to day relationship with advertising, particularly online, is becoming increasingly complex, contradictory and sometimes concerning. Hopefully, this latest evidence showing what drives as well as what limits trust, will聽enable brands, media owners and agencies alike to focus on measures to improve trust further.鈥�

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The event opened with an address by Baroness Nicky Morgan, Chair of the ASA, who posed the key question of why trust matters in advertising. She drew on her experience as a Minister of Culture to note that if you have a trusted sector that abides by the rules and a regulator that enforces the rules, ministers will be less likely to need to get involved. Lady Morgan also highlighted the upcoming challenges for the ASA within new and emerging areas of advertising within Ai and Chatbots and how everyone in the market needs to meet the same high standards of trust.

Trusted Advertising co-author James Best, Chair of the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) then thanked the many contributors and endorsers of the book and talked about how surprised and pleased himself and Matt were at people鈥檚 willingness to be interviewed for the book. He noted that it really does seem to be a hot topic of the moment, especially given how much is going on in the world as a whole regarding trust, which impacts all of us.

Co-author and 果冻传媒n Director of Communications, Matt Bourn, then shared some of his reasons for writing a book about trust in advertising and his creative writing process that led to his 鈥榓nchors鈥� for the book being both in 1926 and 2026. Matt also asked the assembled group: 鈥淲hat on earth is happening to trust in the 21st century? Why do we care about it? Why is it box office gold with something like 鈥楾he Traitors鈥�? Chekhov said if you can’t trust people, life becomes impossible. This is why we have to be trusted, this is why businesses have to be trusted, this is why our advertising has to be trusted.鈥�

The event attendees were then asked to take part in a specially devised game – 鈥楢 Question of Trust鈥�. Eight options were held up on signs and each person had stand by the sign that they believed was the most important factor in driving trust in their next advertising campaign. Someone from each of the eight groups then explained why they had stood next to that sign. James Best led the big reveal鈥� that actually all of the factors were important; it was not about just doing one of them but all of them.

ASA CEO Guy Parker closed the event with some words about the ASA and its continued drive for public awareness of its existence and its work, as the drive for higher public trust in advertising continues to be a key mission of the self-regulatory body.

Trusted Advertising: How to harness the value of trust in your brand is published on 3^rd February by Kogan Page and copies can be ordered .

Photo credit: Bronac McNeill

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