Stories
These short pieces are based on information held in the Archive and aim to demonstrate that there is no such thing as ‘out-of-date research’. However long ago the work was originally commissioned, these data are available to add insight for those eager to explore the dynamics of change. We hope you enjoy browsing through our stories – and please check back from time to time as we regularly add new material here. Our most recent stories are listed first.
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Cinzano – a classic ad campaign
Sometimes a TV campaign can have a positive effect on an entire category as well as the brand in...
Budget expectations and reality – October 2024
The leading polling organisations have not so far published any poll covering what the public...
What happened to Margaret Thatcher’s dream of a share-owning public?
The 1980s in Britain was the decade of big privatisations. The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher,...
Politics has become an inevitable part of sport
When Emmanuel Macron announced the snap election back in June, IOC President Thomas Bach and Paris...
Getting into the groove: the fall and rise of vinyl records
Vinyl is cool again. Long-playing records, or LPs, have become a measure of the British economy’s...
The Ways We Were
There is a massive number of old survey results from the last 50+ years which are included and...
The Dulux sheep dog is still with us, thanks to 60-year-old market research
In the late fifties ICI was Britain’s only truly global conglomerate and in its Paints Division...
General election: lessons from the last 50+ years
With a general election likely to take place in 2024 it is worth looking back at lessons to be...
COP28 and an update on British attitudes to the environment
An October 2020 poll by YouGov found that 67% of the British public wanted Britain to be a world...
A picture of Britain in the 1950s
Geoff Wicken acquired a vintage readership survey report for AMSR. It has much to tell us about a...
Sunshine breaks pile on the stress
A recent (August 2023) survey for the Office of National Statistics among 2,000 UK adults found...
Tests and challenges
An Ashes series between England and Australia is for many cricket fans as good as it gets. But the...
How popular were the royals 50 years ago?
Recent reports have commented on how the monarchy’s popularity has fallen in recent years – to...
The fall and rise of cinema
As Warner Bros, one of the world’s leading film and entertainment companies, celebrates its 100th...
Inflation, decimalisation and metrication
In the 1970s, price inflation was at least as big a political problem as it is today....
The lasting popularity of the National Lottery
Kantar recently published TGI figures reporting that 65% of GB adults have played either Lotto,...
Hypothermia and winter mortality among the old and poor: relevant action needed, as never before
As winter approaches, with fuel bills and inflationary pressures endangering the lives of the old...
Financing the BBC: always a contentious issue
Alternative funding methods for the BBC have been discussed for years. Back in the 1980s, many...
Platinum Jubilee – have we always loved the royals?
Newspapers regularly report the affection that the majority of the British public have for the...
From ‘The Lonesome Vegetarian’ to mass-market consumer
Vegetarianism has come a long way since the 1990s, as this exploration of the Archive of Market...
COP26 and the history of British attitudes to environment
(Article updated October 2021) A recent (October 2020) poll by YouGov found 67% of the British...
Upmarket consumers are more likely to switch suppliers
The latest advice seems to be that, at present, it is unlikely to be worth trying to switch gas...
The effects of 9/11
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and other...
The hayfever phenomenon
Hayfever is far more prevalent than it used to be. Data held within AMSR shows that it afflicts...
Football watchers have become a better reflection of society
Almost 30 years on from the launch of the Premier League in English football, we’ve seen huge...
Census sensibility
With the census in England & Wales recently completed and having generated a number of...
The Challenges of Inequality
While we live in an era dominated by post-Brexit politics and the pandemic, new realities bring...
Consumers are ready to splash out
During lockdown, despite the loss of employment income for many, consumers have been accumulating...
Marketing in uncertain times
Though the current recession looks like being the worst on record, some useful guidelines from...
Christmas – then and now
A look at two Christmas related research findings published 46 years apart, and accessed from the...