Four U.S. marketing trade groups registered their opposition to the adding of a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census questionnaire.
The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) sent a joint letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce in which they said they were opposed to the new census inquiry that asks: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”
“We are concerned that [it] would depress response among both non-citizens and their families (even if family members are indeed citizens),” the letter stated. “That runs the risk of non-respondent bias by significantly undercounting immigrant, minority, and low-income populations. If immigrants and others avoid the national head-count, the census results will be flawed.”
ARF CEO & President Scott McDonald’s letter to the Department of Commerce:
“I urge the Census Bureau to scrap the plan to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census.
Our 400 member companies are committed to quality, validity, reliability and transparency in the measurement of media and marketing. As such, we are very concerned that every decennial Census be as complete and as accurate as possible.
We are worried that the last minute introduction of a citizenship question, without the opportunity to include field tests already in progress, represents a reckless violation of that cautious and deliberative tradition.
Adding an untested and politically contentious citizenship question into the mix at this late date represents an unwise leap into the unknown, with significant risk to the business communities that rely on a full and accurate Census.
It is the decennial Census counts that provide “truth sets” to which commercial databases are reconciled. Businesses spend billions of dollars based on these data…”
Lentini, N. (2018, August 7). U.S. Marketing Trade Groups Oppose Citizenship Census Question. MediaPost.