And our survey said...

What is it with the media and surveys? We've done our bit for surveys over the years but it always suprises us the way they are seized upon by the news-hungry press (it's not like they haven't got anything else to write about) and reported verbatim.

The headline piece in the latest bit of nonsense is that 10% of people surveyed could not identify a sheep. Now, we might have a little difficulty placing some of the countrysides more obscure inhabitants but a sheep? This is such a transparently obvious PR ruse to drum up publicity for Travelodge that it hard to read, let alone take seriously.

The results are (supposedly) as follows:

Over half of Brits polled think visiting the countryside is boring.

• 53% of adults said there was nothing to see or do in Britain’s countryside.
• 10% thought it was safe to eat all berries and fungus they found growing in the countryside.
• 32% had difficulty identifying a pheasant
• 22% could not identify a hare.
• 10% thought the hare was a deer

and wonderfully.

• 10% could not identify a sheep!
  

This reminds me of a company (that will remain nameless) that generated huge amounts of press coverage with the claim that over half of their survey participants could not distinguish between the Eifel Tower and the Blackpool Tower. The fact that this fact was made up over a liquid lunch did not worry the editors of numerous tabloids and broadsheets who plastered it all over their front pages. I'm not suggesting that the PR machine of Travelodge enjoyed the same liquid creativity but I would question those that report any old nonsense just becasue it makes good copy.