Top Stories

A new @YahooFinance & @HarrisPoll survey found:
- 54% of Americans oppose student debt forgiveness.
- 55% think forgiveness would help the economy.
- If it's going to happen, 59% say Congress should do it, not POTUS.
story w/ @aarthiswami:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/less-than-half-of-americans-support-student-loan-forgiveness-poll-183840781.html
54% of Americans think it would be a good idea to give NBA players early access to the COVID-19 vaccine in order to increase public confidence in it according to our latest poll featured in @axios https://bit.ly/3uxjob8
Humbled to have our POV in WSJ on this critical issue: “I’m less concerned about the antivax, no-chance crowd from a public-health perspective....I’m much more worried about the next 25%—a large portion who are African-American..."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/age-shapes-covid-19-vaccine-reluctance-among-black-americans-11614344415
Most Americans, however, draw the line at full exposure: 56% disagree with breastfeeding ads showing women’s breasts completely uncovered, and women are much more opposed than men. Two-thirds (67%) of women disagree with the practice while 56% of men say they would be okay with it.
Although Americans mostly agree with advertisers showing a woman’s partially covered breasts in these ads, some squeamishness remains. Only 49% of Americans say they’re truly comfortable with breast-feeding ads that show a woman’s partially covered breasts, and only 37% said they’re truly comfortable with such ads showing a woman’s fully uncovered breasts.
While Americans have warmed up to more realistic representations of breastfeeding, they’re generally opposed to realism in menstrual hygiene ads. Seventy-one percent of Americans say they disagree with ads for sanitary products showing menstrual blood, and 55% said it would make them uncomfortable.
Even using the color red to simulate blood in feminine hygiene ads is divisive: Only 46% of Americans are in agreement that advertisers for these products should use the color red (instead of blue) to simulate blood in their ads, and 43% said it would make them uncomfortable.
Otherwise, Americans are mostly okay with frank discussions around the realities of using toilet paper, laxatives, and diapers, but the word “poop” makes them uncomfortable, and they’re uncomfortable with more direct anatomical references.
When it comes to toilet paper doing its job, most Americans (71%) agree advertisers should be direct about their products’ function (e.g. relieve itching or scratching). However, while 61% of Americans agreed advertisers should be able to use the word “poop” in ads for laxatives and diapers, only 41% say they’re truly comfortable with the word being used in this context.
Moreoever, Americans are generally more squeamish about toilet paper ads displaying the buttocks -- reporting similar levels of discomfort with these ads as they did for breastfeeding ads that show a woman’s wholly uncovered breasts. About two-fifths of Americans (39%) said toilet paper ads that show the buttocks -- or a representation of it -- would make them uncomfortable while 41% said they would be uncomfortable with a breastfeeding ad showing a woman’s breasts completely uncovered.
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Ad Age from February 26, 2021, to March 1, 2021, among 1,074 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
To ensure that responses about agreement and comfort with sensitive ads were not influenced by the order of survey questions, half of all respondents were asked about their agreement on whether certain sensitive ad content should be shown and then asked about their comfort with specific sensitive ad content. The other half of respondents were asked these questions in the opposite order. For more information on methodology, please contact Dami Rosanwo.
Download full data here.
Two-thirds (66%) of consumers say they currently order from third-party food delivery services, but only 41% report having ordered from one of these apps before the onset of the pandemic. Based on previous polling, frequency of usage has grown: In a Harris Poll study from July 2020, 15% of people reported using food delivery apps at least weekly compared to 28% now. Most of that increase seemed to come from people who had previously reported using these apps 1-3x per month, which fell from 24% to 10%.
"Early" adopters, are also the most frequent users of third-party delivery services, but the pandemic hasn’t created as many "new" users as conventional wisdom might suggest. Just over half (54%) of consumers who report using third-party food delivery services before the pandemic say they use them now to order food at least once a week. However, 73% of consumers who say they never used these apps before the pandemic report they’re still not using them now.
Despite the heavy marketing of third-party apps, Americans order directly from a restaurant more than they order via third-party delivery apps. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of consumers say they order from restaurants directly. When looking at weekly users, 32% of consumers say they order from restaurants at least once a week compared to the 28% who do the same with third-party food delivery apps and services.
Interestingly, there were salient differences between racial/ethnic groups regarding order frequency. Half (52%) of Hispanic consumers report ordering from restaurants directly at least once a week compared to only 24% of White consumers.
This hardly means game over for third-party services. In fact, consumers who have seen Uber Eats’ and DoorDash’s 2021 Super Bowl commercials are much more likely to order from third-party delivery services. Forty-three percent of Americans say they watched Uber Eats' Wayne's World-themed Super Bowl ad during the month of February while 32% report seeing DoorDash's Sesame-Street themed Super Bowl ad during the same period. About two in five Americans who recalled seeing these ads (43% of DoorDash ad viewers, 38% of Uber Eats ad viewers) order from third-party apps and services at least once a week.
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Ad Age from February 26, 2021, to March 1, 2021, among 1,074 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. For more information on methodology, please contact Dami Rosanwo.
Download full data here.
Black adults younger than 40 are the group most likely to avoid the inoculations
By Maureen Linke & Luis Melgar | Wall Street Journal | Feb 26, 2021
Black adults under age 40 are the most likely group to say they “definitely won’t” get the Covid-19 vaccine, more than double the response rate of white and Hispanic respondents who are the same age, according to national survey data released every two weeks by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Among both unvaccinated Hispanics and whites, 11% under 40 said they definitely won’t get the vaccine, compared with 24% of unvaccinated Black young adults. The survey of 80,000 people, conducted between Jan. 20 and Feb. 1, gauges national responses by different demographic groups in a quick turnaround period to show how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Americans’ daily lives.
Respondents’ age played the largest factor in a willingness to be inoculated. Those 65 and over were most likely to indicate they would get the vaccine, with 63% of Black and 65% of Hispanic respondents saying they would ‘definitely’ get vaccinated, below the three-quarters of white respondents.

Overall, more Black adults are willing to be inoculated, compared with previous weeks’ results. In the latest poll, 70% of Black adults who haven’t received the vaccine said they definitely or probably would get it, an increase of 7 percentage points since the survey conducted the week of Jan. 6.
Black, Hispanic and Native American populations are dying from Covid-19 at nearly three times the rate of white Americans. These deaths skew younger among minorities, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of death-certificate data collected by federal authorities. Public-health experts say they expected minorities would be particularly affected, including at younger ages, because of risk factors including unequal access to care, as well as possible employment in low-wage jobs that require work outside of the home.
Minority and underserved communities have populations that traditionally distrust medical treatments and the government, and broadly have less access to things such as easy transportation to vaccination centers or the digital technology needed to book appointments. Survey respondents under 40 were the most likely to list a concern about side effects as their reason for being reluctant to get the vaccine. One-third of unvaccinated Black young adults cited a distrust of the Covid-19 vaccine, compared with 23% of whites the same age.

Black and white Americans trust doctors and nurses the most for vaccine information. But their trust levels in various forms of media differ. Black people are more likely to trust social media for information on the vaccine, with 55% of Black respondents saying they do, according to a recent Harris Poll. That compares with 32% of white respondents. But social media can be rife with misinformation.
“There’s a lot of people, particularly in the Black community, who are looking to other people they know or trust in their community,” said the Harris Poll’s managing director, Rob Jekielek. “Many of the people they are connected with have the same apprehensions and share content that reinforces their own fears.”
Followers of antivaccine social-media accounts have increased 20% since 2019, according to a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that tracks the spread of online misinformation. The organization has tracked nearly 58 million antivaccine accounts and found they are most prevalent on Facebook.
Yet Mr. Jekielek said the antivaccine movement doesn’t worry him as much as other social-media activity. Posts or memes that are less nefarious and that question how a vaccine could be developed so quickly contribute more broadly to the inoculation reluctance found in swaths of the population, he said. One of the larger barriers to convincing some minority groups not to delay is a lack of access to preventive healthcare that builds trust in the medical system, he said.
“I’m less concerned about the antivax, no-chance crowd from a public-health perspective,” Mr. Jekielek said. “I’m much more worried about the next 25%—a large portion who are African-American, that are delaying getting the vaccine, meaning that it will take longer to get to the 80%-of-the-population goal to reach herd immunity.”
Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal.
54% of Americans think it would be a good idea to give NBA players early access to the COVID-19 vaccine in order to increase public confidence in it, according to a survey administered last week by The Harris Poll.
- 1,961 adults were surveyed; 68% said they'd likely get the vaccine as soon as it became available.
- 39% said they'd be more comfortable getting the vaccine if NBA players publicly received it first, led by Black (55%) and Asian (54%) respondents.
The state of play: Through Wednesday, 13.6% of Americans have received at least one dose, and 6.2% have received both, per the CDC.
Read the full story at Axios.
Overall, a large majority (72%) of consumers said they will spend about the same or less than they did last spring, and 74% said they will spend about the same or less than they did this winter. Higher-income Americans, however, were more likely to be gearing up for a spending spree: 30% of those with a household north of $100,000 said they plan to spend more compared to last spring, and 28% in this income range said they plan to spend more compared to this winter.
It’s clear, one way or the other, that the current rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has had an impact on spending: 53% of consumers overall said the vaccine rollout has had at least “some influence” on their planned spending for spring 2021. This effect was even more pronounced with consumers in high-income households -- those bringing in $100,000 or more per year -- 61% of whom said the vaccine rollout has influenced how much they plan to spend come spring.
When it comes to where and how American will be spending their money this spring, it looks like a lot of it will happen in stores. Most consumers (62%) plan to shop in-store at least once a week this spring, and parents with kids at home are the most likely to be planning frequent in-store outings -- 71% of Americans with children under 18 said they’ll be shopping in-store weekly.
In-store shopping is only the beginning though. Travel also appears primed for an imminent comeback, especially among high-income earners and consumers in their late 30s and early 40s. Thirty-five percent of consumers overall plan to travel out of town this summer, and 43% of consumers in households with $100,000 or more in annual income say they have the same plan. Consumers aged 35 to 44 are also looking forward to travel, with 40% reporting plans for out-of-town trips this summer.
The survey shows Americans also have their eyes on cars, meaning car dealers may be looking at a summer sales rush. One-third (34%) of consumers say they plan to buy a new or used car in the next six months, and younger consumers especially are driving this trend: 45% of consumers aged 18-34 and over half (54%) of consumers aged 35-44 plan to buy a car in this timeframe.
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Ad Age during February 23-25, 2021, among 2,032 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. For more information on methodology, please contact Dami Rosanwo.
Download full data here.