October 2014
Featured in this insight: Financial services, IT & telecommunications, Media & publishing
TV stars blamed for irresponsible borrowing, says market research: The results of a recent poll, conducted for debt advice and solutions provider, Debt Advisory Centre, has revealed that the majority of participants considered reality TV personalities, celebrities and fictional characters to be influencing people to borrow irresponsibly and in turn, get into debt in order to purchase objects that they cannot really afford.
Following on from this, the results from the poll found that 80% of participants are concerned that the representation of debt, by elements of the media, is fuelling the irresponsible borrowing habits of many.
Three-quarters (74%) believe that news of celebrities successfully filing for bankruptcy is a main reason for irresponsible borrowing. They agreed that the media’s coverage of celebrity bankruptcy stresses little seriousness of the aftermath, which involves negative effects on an individual’s credit rating and also seriously impacts one’s ability to apply for loans in the future. Furthermore, the name of the individual will be added to the Individual Insolvency Register along with their estate being sold.
Alongside the view that celebrities and reality stars are an influencer of irresponsible borrowing, fictional representations are considered to be equally as important. More than two-thirds (69%) claimed that the trivialisation of living in debt is caused by improbable behaviours of television characters. In contrast to this, 42% believed that the representations of living in debt on television were accurate.
73% of participants stated that they did not believe that fictional characters utilise credit in a responsible manner.
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