In the 2025 Credos Trust Tracker, which was released at the Advertising Association’s Lead summit in London on 5th February, showed that public trust in adverts reached 40% in 2025, the highest level of the past five years and up from 31% in 2021.

The research also said that 11% of people said they were very trusting of adverts and 29% are fairly trusting, compared with 25% who distrust adverts and 33% who are neither trusting nor distrusting.

‘Suspicious advertising’, such as scams, misleading adverts, greenwashing, undisclosed adverts and the manipulation of images, was cited as a key factor in driving distrust.

Enjoyment was rated the top positive driver in trust in advertising, with bombardment named as the number one factor causing distrust in the sector.

Participants attributed joint responsibility for managing issues in advertising to platforms, individual responsibility, regulatory bodies and government, though the role of platforms was considered the most important.

The findings were synthesised by Credos from an in-depth qualitative study by Opinium and a quantitative survey by Credos. The Credos Trust Tracker survey is designed and run quarterly in collaboration with Kantar, based on a nationally representative sample of around 2,000 respondents per year. 

Dan Wilks, director of Credos, said: “It is fantastic to see public trust in ads reach the highest levels we’ve 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’s day-to-day relationship with advertising, particularly online, is becoming increasingly complex, contradictory and sometimes concerning.”