Stuart Harrison, Executive Strategy Director at adam&eveDDB NY, shares his thoughts on election season as it relates to the advertising industry. In Little Black Book’s ‘Poll Position’ feature, Stuart said:

“People’s obsession with political polling always makes me think of a classic quote about market research. ‘People don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think, and they don’t do what they say.’

“Polling is just good old-fashioned market research, knocking on doors, asking people what they think, helpful for getting insight to inspire marketing, but not always correlating with real-world behavior.

“In uncertain times, we crave the security of knowing what happens next but that uncertainty makes it harder than ever to predict people’s behavior, especially when said behavior might be considered controversial. That’s why different pollsters predict everything from the closest-ever election to political landslides. And that’s why, as marketers, we must use ‘polling’ judiciously, getting beyond the rational (are you persuaded?) to the emotional (how do you feel?), which helps us understand people and de-risks investments but isn’t the ultimate arbiter of truth.”

Read more here.