Morning Consult conducts an annual survey asking US adults which brands they trust the most.
This year, the bulk of top-trusted brands consisted of food, household, and personal products, such as Lysol, Colgate, and Cheerios — familiar brands people across demographics likely have continuously stocked.
Take, for example, the humble Band-Aid. It just landed its third consecutive year in the top spot.
Band-Aids…
… were invented by Johnson & Johnson cotton buyer Earle Dickson after he observed his wife regularly suffering cuts while cooking. J&J launched the product in 1921.
That first year, Band-Aids were sold as sheets that customers had to cut into strips; it made just ~$3k (~$40k today).
Yet, it eventually took off to become a household staple so ubiquitous that it’s now an example of genericide — when a brand name becomes the term for all similar items.
Today, Band-Aid is owned by J&J subsidiary Kenvue.
Which is interesting…
… because J&J is the subject of tens of thousands of lawsuits from plaintiffs who allege that its talc-based products cause cancer.
That’s reflected in a similar survey published last month, the annual Axios Harris Poll 100,which ranks 100 highly visible brands by how Americans view their reputation.
Here, J&J ranks at 73, placing it below even the much-complained-about Southwest Airlines (61). And TikTok — a brand that Gen Z and millennials trust much more than other generations, per the Morning Consult poll — ranks nearly last at 95, in company with fellow platforms Meta (97) and X (99).
But Band-Aid on its own apparently gives us the warm fuzzies — possibly because: a) we don’t always associate brands with their subsidiaries, and b) it’s an early symbol of comfort thanks to the placebo effect that occurs when a caretaker puts one over a child’s cut.