An Untrustworthy Barometer: Edelman Polling Promotes Clients’ Standing in Society
22 January 2025
Yesterday at Davos, Richard Edelman, CEO of his self-named public relations giant, presented Edelman’s latest “Trust Barometer”, following its official release Sunday. But is the “Trust Barometer” trustworthy?
In a new brief, “An Untrustworthy Barometer,” the Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition exposes reasons to distrust Edelman’s Trust Barometer, from their resistance to transparency despite touting it, to the dodgy methodologies in what they will disclose publicly.
Lee Edwards of the London School of Economics said of the report: “Like any exercise in corporate public relations, the Barometer’s results have to be read against Edelman’s actual actions. Its longstanding links to extractive industries mean that the overarching message of the Barometer – that business should engage with society and even lead social change – rings hollow, given that climate change is one of society’s most urgent crises.” Edwards also published an op-ed on the Barometer yesterday in The Drum warning that “advertising and public relations practitioners and their clients who buy blindly into the Barometer’s trust narrative may achieve exactly the opposite of their reputational goals.”
Key Points:
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Edelman refused to share data behind its Trust Barometer, despite claims it is transparent, making it impossible to replicate their findings.
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Credible peer-reviewed sources often point to other institutions than businesses as being high-trust, such as scientists, so Edelman’s narrow polling stands relatively alone in touting businesses as being trusted by the public.
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Edelman is one of the biggest enablers of the fossil fuel industry, working for more climate change causing companies than any PR firm in the last 30 years- yet they claim to believe “climate change is the biggest crisis we face as a society.”