Strong Majority of Canadian’s disagree with banning “Baby it’s Cold Outside”
The latest National Campaign Research Poll conducted among 1,494 Canadians revealed that a strong majority (76%) of Canadians were aware of the recent controversy, in which a number of radio stations banned the playing of the holiday song “Baby its Cold Outside.” Interestingly, 8 in 10 English-speaking Canadian’s (82%) stated that they had heard news related to the song and were familiar with the details of the controversy. Awareness was much lower among French-speaking Canadians with only about half (48%) being aware. This is not surprising as “Baby its Cold Outside” is typically played on the radio in English, even within Quebec.
Disagreement with the ban was supported among 72% of Canadians with older Canadians most likely to disagree with the ban. Millennials, interestingly, were most likely to support the ban, with a quarter (26%) supportive of the measure. Regionally, support for the ban was weakest in Atlantic Canada and Alberta, where over 80% of residents in those provinces disagreed with banning the song on the radio.
“It is rare to see this level of public awareness or agreement on any issue. The Canadian public including females, are clearly opposed to banning the song and the vast majority do not find it offensive enough to pull from the air waves.” said Eli Yufest, CEO of Campaign Research.
METHODOLOGY
This online study was conducted by Campaign Research as part of its monthly omnibus study between December 11 to December 13 through an online survey of 1,494 randomly selected Canadian adults who are members of Maru/Blue’s online panel Maru Voice Canada and were provided with various incentives to respond. The panelists were selected to reflect Canada’s age, gender and regional distributions in line with 2016 Statistics Canada census data. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20.
The results have been weighted by education, age, gender, and region (and in Quebec, language) to match the population according to 2016 Census data. Certain areas or groups may be oversampled but have been weighted to reflect their proportion of Canada’s population. This is to ensure the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.
The following screening question was asked in order to determine eligibility for participation in the study "Are you 18 years of age or older and eligible to vote in federal elections?"
