Fake ads, real damage

When you work on issues of corporation (and even when you don’t), you notice that there are A LOT of trial lawyer ads like this one out there, trying to recruit plaintiffs to their case.

The claims made in ads like these, which look like they could have been created in 1 minute by AI, are believable to 51% of the Informed Public; 69% say they would be concerned if they were using the product discussed in the ad.

So it’s probably not surprising that this ad: which we created in 1 minute using AI, tested comparably to the real ad in our same poll: 42% found it believable, 62% said they would be concerned if they used this (not real) product.

The data:

• 69% say they trust jury verdicts when it comes to the safety of products (such as chemicals, foods and cosmetics) to say what is safe and what is not (almost as high as those who say they trust the FD (78%) and higher than those who say they trust the company making the products (59%)
• The fake ad performed almost as well as the real ad: 
  • Fake ad: 42% found it believable, 62% said they would concerned if they used the product discussed in the ad, 39% said they found the ad trustworthy
  • Real ad: 51% found it believable, 69% said they were concerned if they used the product discussed in the ad, 49% said they found the ad trustworthy

The threat of mass tort litigation is ever-present for many companies, but Plaintiffs’ attorneys are often able to wreak havoc on a company’s reputation with just a small ad buy on social media recruiting plaintiffs to their class.

Source: Purple Strategies Omnibus Survey of the US Informed Public. N=1,000. July 17-22, 2024.