Target and Levi's are the only ones I've really bought from.

My recent experience with VW reliability and customer service have shyed me away from them incredibly, and I'm probably the last person on earth that doesn't own an Ipod.

@chimmike: Not the only person in the world, maybe the 2nd person in the world without an Ipod...

I'm aged 21-27 and I do love Trader Joes... but the rest??? I don't get it.

I thought American Apparel wasn't hip anymore.

@chimmike: I think the point of the study is to determine the value of a name, not the products themselves. Even if you don't have an iPod (I don't either), then you must have some sense of it, good or bad.

Apple is sooooo good at advertising, I'm almost considering buying one of their computers, even though I don't need one and they're a bit more pricey than a similar PC. (debatable, I know)

Its all the big advertisers on that list. Shows how easy Generation Y is to manipulate. All us Generation X folks are rolling over in our graves.

what does it say about me when i don't like any of those companies and i'm 21-27? i'm a tool of no one's except my own!

Most of these are brands I find too pretentious to patronize (ie: American Apparel's stupid Calvin Klein esque ads, VW's refrigerated glove compartments, Whole Foods in it's entirety, .etc).

Target and JetBlue would be on my list for selling a good product at a good price.

I don't know about rolling over in our graves. I'm Gen Y, and I love JetBlue, TJ's and Target, and have planned to visit In-n-Out on my honeymoon. You can keep Whole Foods, though.

At 28 I'm a skosh older than this demographic, but the list seems like nothing new for the most part. When I was in college Apple, Adidas, VW, Target, Converse, Ben & Jerry's and (to a lesser extent) Whole Foods were all the universally loved and trusted brands. I've since become a total Trader Joe's convert, but my boyfriend prefers the consistency of Whole Foods, even if the prices make him angry. Guess he's just old skool.
What's really weird is I think I've seen maybe 2 Red Stripe TV ads, but I still managed to get sucked in by the ad campaign through word of mouth. I am about 5 times more likely to buy Red Stripe than I was a few years ago. I used to buy it sometimes, now I buy it pretty frequently, due to the word of mouth generated by their ad campaign. Even those of us who block ads online and skip through them on TV still get affected by them.

I'm 24, and I Loath all things in this demographic.

But then again it could just be rebelliousness, or the fact that I'm one of those oh so common "Jobless" 24 year olds.

I don't get Red Stripe.

The commercials are great but the beer is crappy.

As a 24 year old, I am heavily drawn to all of those companies. Maybe it's because of my location in NYC, and I'm exposed to way too much advertising on a daily basis here.

I think that Target, VW and Apple are the champs at advertising. I want to buy their products and I don't even know why... Scary.

@AngrySicilian: Possibly the third person without one.

I'd never even heard of Trader Joe's before coming to the Consumerist web site (or Whole Foods for that matter).

I have shopped at Target, though not recently. That's it for the companies/products listed. (I'm in the demographic, btw.

Target is just Wal-Mart for snobs. Their slogan should be "slightly better looking plastic crap made in China that you don't need".

A lot of these are ones that aren't around me. Was this from the Bay Area or something? I agree with most of the list, but I'd replace Volkswagon with Toyota, because Toyota has earned my respect the right way for a car company: Good mileage, good reliability, nice design, and decent customer service (From my dealer at least).

As a Gen Y-er (I had no idea that's what I was), I wouldn't look at this list as brands that I "like" or "dislike", but moreso those that have ingratiated themselves into my generation's lives the heaviest, have made a killing on marketing the most to my demographic, or are most recognizable. Correct, not everyone in my age group is going to know all brands, but I don't think that's what this list is about, per se...

These are the brands that market toward us the most, in the grand scheme of thing. Like them or hate them, that's what this list is about...in my opinion at least. :)

Most of these brands I don't know, being in Canada, but American Apparel? Really? I hate their shirts -- are inconsistently sized, shrink, and seem to be cut for skinny hipsters -- as well as their ads, which are creepily sleazy.

Most people in their 20s can only afford cheap crap - at least Target's is somewhat attractive.

I am borderline X/Y and feel the same about this list.

In n Out on the list makes me think this is definitely location skewed as it isn't widely available throughout the entire nation.

Ben&Jerry's advertise? Who knew.

Most trusted brands?

Or brands that are currently perceived as being the coolest?

(And I don't own an iPod either.)

If only Apple didn't have the swarmy spokeman on their Apple/PC ads, I might think more of them. If I ever met that guy, and he pulled that self-satisfied "I'm better than you" crap, I'd slap him silly and shove his apple up his iHole. I like VW, as they make a nice small line of vehicles that always seem to be comparable to more expensive vehicles. Toyotas are reliable, but mostly boring. I think Levis are timeless and will always be in style, and the rest are OK, but I don't see them as iconographic or more trusted.

Converse?
American Apparel?

And here I was, thinking Ikea would make the list.

Yeah, I don't get how In-N-Out got on that list. They only have locations in California and Nevada. Was this survey taken in California only? Or does all of Gen-Y live on the West Coast?

Darn. Here I think I'm a media savvy Gen Y-er, and now I learn that I'm still being taken advantage of, just by a smarter marketing strategy. I think I have a good opinion of most of those companies, but I agree with the prior poster, take out VW and add on Toyota.

@Terminixsux: There needs to be an iHole t-shirt RIGHT NOW!!

i'd agree with jeff (not just because he's from LA) in that i would trust a lot of these companies as well, and i have a high opinion of most. but American Apparel isn't hip by itself anymore, it's mostly just a good brand to buy before slapping your own crap on the shirt.

Marketing schemes? I don't know about that. A couple of these are pretty big advertisers (Target, Apple, VW), but overall these are just strong brands with strong reputations. The only way to get that: offer a quality product and actually deliver it.

I think this list just proves how freaking smart us 21-27 year olds really are. Oh, man, are we savvy.

Yeah I'm surprised by American Apparel too. All I've ever heard friends say about it is more or less, "Kudos 'n all for not using sweatshop labor, but trading one form of exploitation (labor) for another (pornographic ads featuring the selfsame laborers) isn't acceptible."

Vitamin Water? What the hell? Buy some water, buy a bottle of vitamins, and save yourself a butt load of money. (sorry, I hate flavored water with a passion)

I like target....you have to pay a 'no poors tax', but then you dont have to put up with dirty shelves, stocking while youre trying to get to an item and a company that aspires for world domination (ie Walmart).

American Apparel, please. I go in there and feel like I'm in Myspace: The Store. Those pictures they have everywhere are just over the top pretentious.

Plus, I'm not keen on paying $30 for a solid colored cotton t-shirt I could get with a cute, quirky print from Threadless for half that price.

But I think more accurately, the list is of the trendiest brands, not the most trusted. As much as I and everyone else on the planet loves H&M, we all know their clothes are cheap and won't last you more than a couple years. (which is fine, given how disposable fashions are anyway)

@traezer: Some of the Vitamin Water flavors are tastier than their Gatorade equivalents, so I'll often pick it over the competition. I loathe the name, though, since once you start adding crap to water it stops being water and starts being a soft drink. I really dislike the flavored Dasani because it tastes like ass. The lemonade, tropical, and citrus varieties of Vitamin Water are quite tasty, though, and comparable to Gatorade in electrolyte and calorie content.

That list is hilarious, no matter how you look at it.

@traezer: Vitamin Water is a brand; they come in flavors, just like gatorade; 50 calories/13g sugar per 8 oz... oh, and vitamins!

Being right in the middle of the demographic, I can't say that I agree. Apple and VW are overrated, Ben & Jerry's is too expensive, Red Stripe is disgusting. I don't live anywhere near a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or In-N-Out Burger, so I can't really vouch for them. I love Target, though, and I'm registering there for my wedding.

At least Armani and Versace aren't on there.

Looking at that list made me realize how much I only shop from Mom and Pop stores [local], and/or boutique-ish small brands. Then again, I am a Gen X-er.

Apple: Solid comps.

Trader Joe's: Excellent priced merchandise.

Jet Blue: If they flew to more destinations.

In-N-Out Burger: Who else has these except Cali?

Ben & Jerry's: Delish

Whole Foods: Overpriced.

Adidas: Word em up. Those Germans know how to make a shoe.

American Apparel: Expensive but good ethics.

Target: Cool commercial... douche.

H & M clothing stores: Nice and cheap but can only find about 2 things that are worth buying when I stop in.

Levi's: Noice Noice

Volkswagen: Real cool douche.

Converse: FTW? Who wears these?

Vitamin Water: delicious

Red Stripe Jamaican beer: overrated

VW, Converse, Apple, American Apparel, Whole Foods...

that has "emo" written all over it :-P

@LittleJoe: DEATH TO EMO.......!

26 and I really cant say I dont like any of those companies, but I'm indifferent to about half of them. Otherwise, Apple, In-n-Out, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Vitamin Water are the only ones I patronize. I'd patronize Jet Blue if Southwest didnt have their huge presence at LAS. I do like Delta too.

I don't think this is really an index of the Most Trustworthy companies so much as a roster of the Least Untrustworthy. Of course, you would never see a marketing rag frame it in quite those terms.

So it probably isn't surprising that the Gen Y readership here (myself included) doesn't feel especially cuddly about most of these companies. Nevertheless, we patronize them. Why? Because they aren't as untrustworthy as Microsoft, Walmart, MCDonalds, Nike, Kroger, Budweiser, Ford, United Airlines, etc.

I'm by no means a cheerleader for any of these brands, but I absolutely buy stuff at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, American Apparel, and Target and have been known to suck up the Vitamin Water and Ben & Jerry's (the Stephen Colbert flavor is damn good...) while listening to an iPod. Red Stripe, though? Gag me. That shit is rank.

Who conducted the survey? Who paid for it? What assumptions did they incorporate in their design? As a member of the supposed universe which this study claims to illuminate, I can say that, of the brands my peers chose, I more or less "trust" Apple and Levi's, not because of their marketing strategies but because they make and sell high-quality durable goods at reasonable prices. For those same reasons I trust local independent book and record shops throughout America and the UK, Larrivee guitars and Anthony Lane's movie reviews in The New Yorker. I am struck, by the way, by the apparent absence of Japanese and European brands. An example of Yank provincialism?

This is a terribly unrepresentative summation of popular culture of those 15-30 years of age. It is the opinion of the loud and well-off majority. Most of what you read is a west coast fascination. And I think we can all agree that red-stripe is pretty terrible beer.

*Read only 100 panelists from SF, LA NYC and Miami. This is a very good indicator but regional chains like In-N-Out are barely even known by people East of Las Vegas. Craving one now :(

Clearly I am waaay too old to be counted in this demographic. The Target ads they show on TV makes me think of doing violence on their marketing department and I think Red Stripe tastes like goat piss (don't ask). Fat Tire or Laughing Lab = good, Red Stripe = bad

Converse is owned by Nike, and Ben & Jerry's is owned by Dreyers. And I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg.
How many hip young kids blast Nike for using sweatshops while wearing Converse? Who knows?

Big thanks to websites like this one for exposing us all to the bulls@#!t these companies try to pull.

Among 20something college crowds, every single person thinks apple is good and microsoft and dell suck. All of them.

TomK: You couldn't me more wrong. "straightforward and stripped-down" is the antithesis of Apple, whose products are bought by those without the technical knowledge to build their own or to want a more user-configurable system.

In other news, whoever came up with the whole Gen Y thing failed biology. Generation Klinefelter for the win!