Bill Cosby Falls From #3 to #2,615 in List of Most Trusted Celebrities

Recent sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby, consumers’ perception of the entertainer is taking a nosedive, according to a new survey according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Marketing Arm, a unit of Omnicom Group OMC +0.08% that ranks perceptions of celebrities based on online polls, said new survey results show that Mr. Cosby, once the third-most trusted celebrity in its database, now ranks at No. 2,615. (Marketing Arm has over 3000 celebrities in its database.)

About a year ago, the 77-year-old comedian had ranked alongside celebrities such as Betty White, Brian Williams and Tom Hanks. However, Mr. Cosby now ranks alongside the likes of Manti Te’O, the former Notre Dame linebacker that was embroiled in a fake-girlfriend controversy in 2012, the company said.

Although Mr. Cosby has been dogged by accusations of sexual assault for several years, his image has taken a beating recently as old allegations resurfaced and new allegations emerged.

Networked Insights found that almost 700,000 social media comments were made about Mr. Cosby during the first 20 days of November and about a third of the comments were negative.