Hands, Face, No Space
Audience Research.
Social Distancing & Rule Of Six Ignored By Almost Half Of 18 – 24 Year Olds As Brits Face Month Long Lockdown
Our latest audience research which was part of CGA’s October BrandTrack showed us that, in spite of the pain of the tiered lockdowns (before the current circuit breaker), as a country we still need to take regulations more seriously.
The results showed that the least adhered-to COVID-19 government rule is social distancing, with only 55 percent of consumers saying that they always adhere to it.
What’s more almost half of 18 – 24 year olds are also failing to stick to the rule of six – with only 58 percent following the rules outside and 55 percent inside.
It also revealed that in retail (75 percent) and hospitality (68 percent) settings the majority of Brits are sticking to the rules and wearing masks all the time. Yet 22 percent in retail and 27 percent in hospitality are still admitting that they don’t always wear a mask despite the rule being written in law.
Again the most resistance is coming from those aged between 18 and 34 who live in urban areas.
The questions which were put to the public just before the second national lockdown revealed a divided response to the restrictions on hospitality venues with 22 percent wanting to see tighter restrictions when venues reopen again.
7 percent of those questioned felt that the restrictions on hospitality venues were misdirected, with a further 11 percent agreeing they were too harsh. These views were generally stronger in Tier 3 lockdown areas where people were likely missing their interaction with pubs, bars and restaurants.
Today Andy Burnham has revealed that Manchester will most likely come out of the lockdown straight back into Tier 3 which will be hugely harmful to retail, hospitality, travel and leisure businesses.
For a month before this most recent lockdown we were actively supporting the Cancel the Curfew campaign because the tier system and the 10pm curfew seemed almost entirely designed to demonise hospitality businesses while statistics still show that as few as 3% of cases originate in a bar or restaurant setting. Hotels are closing and travel is being limited but you can see from this poll that it’s the basic rules that are just not working with a vast majority of the general public.
This isn’t the fault of the businesses that are being driven into the ground by curfews and closures. I hope that this second lockdown will convince people that they need to take the rules seriously or it will be their local pubs and shops that will continue to suffer.”
To join the campaign to cancel the curfew visit the Facebook page.
We generated coverage on Sky News, BBC Politics, in regionals across the UK and in the majority of the national trade and news titles.