The University of Missouri and the AAF are partnering to form an Ethics Institute that will “combat the advertising industry’s bad reputation.” A bad reputation? In the advertising industry? I can’t believe—well, okay, they might have a point.  According to a 2007 Gallup/USA Today Poll, advertising practitioners are ranked below business executives and congressman in the public’s perception of those who behave honestly and ethically.

And if the public claims to trust congressmen—who seem to make more headlines from airport bathrooms than the Senate floor—more than advertising practitioners, then this Institute probably should have been created a long time ago.

The public’s mistrust of the industry could be due to the fact that the general-market advertising agencies’ record is so poor that there is a looming possibility of a class-action diversity lawsuit.

Many believe the 2007 poll shows that the future of the industry is in jeopardy. If the industry does not have a positive relationship with consumers, then it will be difficult or nearly impossible to recruit talented individuals—especially individuals with a conscience.

Personally, as an undergraduate considering a major in marketing or communications, this poll—and others like it—alarms me just a bit. Frankly, the fact that the public’s trust in the industry is only ranked slightly above that of car salesmen has me wondering about my own future. I can just picture it, ten years down the road, at some sort of social function, mingling with acquaintances when someone asks me the oh-so-common, “What do you do for a living?” And when I answer, will the person I’m speaking to nod in recognition of a respectable industry? Or will they secretly cringe, likening me to someone in a cheap suit hocking lemons with jimmied odometers?

All I can say is, I hope those folks in Missouri are already hard at work.

Bethany Ellenbogen, a student at Dickinson College, is a summer intern at the Bergman Group.