On the issues where people feel categories have a key role to play, they are seen to be helping much more than they hurt.
Some key strengths and weaknesses emerge across the categories:
- QSR brands are seen to be helping most with employment causes, but are weaker on sustainability and animal welfare
- Supermarket brands are seen generally to be making things better, though plastic and diet related causes attract most criticism
- Sportswear brands are doing well on health issues, concerns appear around body positivity, and uncertainty on plastic, ethical work practices and fair wages
- Personal Care brands are helping most for cruelty-free products. Opinion is more divided on if they are helping people to consume less
- Almost two in three believe banks are strengthening cybersecurity. But opinion is split on if banks help to make housing more affordable
- Ethical sourcing is where the chocolate category is seen to help most, with lower overall levels of criticism than other categories
- For toilet paper deforestation attracts the strongest opinions, for better and worse. Less involvement overall evident for this category.
Question: Please tell us for each cause whether you think brands of the given category generally are making things better, making things worse, or having no impact either way?