A recent BrandSpark study of 796 brands found that household names generally associated with Boomer culture dominate the list of those trusted most by Gen Z.
The surveying company compared the trust share of 18-34 year olds against the overall trust share across all age groups. A positive gap meant that the brand over indexed with younger generations while a negative score meant that the brand is more trusted by older consumers.
Newsweek and BrandSpark co-present the annual ranking of The Most Trusted Brands in the U.S., which utilizes the data.
“Trust is not a marketing campaign, it is a structural company asset. In an era of noise, marketing trust is as important as building trust and proving trustworthiness through product development, launch, and sale, and customer interaction. Newsweek is proud to partner with BrandSpark to honor companies doing just that,” said Newsweek‘s VIce President of Research, Strategy, and Revenue Ryan Kinney.
Heinz mustard has the largest, positive gap of all analyzed brands with a +32.7% trust share, followed closely by Dove women’s deodorant and Miralax laxatives. Walmart and CVS Pharmacy also scored well with Gen Z, as did Fiber One fiber supplements, Daisy sour cream, Ninja blender and ChatGPT.
Younger buyers tend to trust brands more when they view them as having a positive impact, being open and honest, and having a distinct offering.
“The brands over-indexing for trust with young Americans aren’t necessarily the biggest or the oldest— they’re the ones that earned it. Innovation, transparency, and consistent product performance are what’s moving the needle with this generation, and the Most Trusted winners reflect exactly that. The 2026 data shows they reward the brands that prove themselves, and they’re remarkably willing to bypass legacy names to find them,” Robert Levy, president of the BrandSpark Most Trusted Brand Awards, told Newsweek.
Brands that skew older include Royal Caribbean cruise line, Garmin dashcam, Zarbee’s children’s cough/cold medicine, Samsonite luggage, Hormel canned chili, Bounce dryer sheets, Coleman camping products and Aldi. McCormick seasonings had the largest divide of the brands tested with a -27.9% trust share.
BrandSpark also found that heritage is an asset, but that it doesn’t resonate with 18-34 year olds as much as it does with older generations.
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