Dive Brief:

• Johnson & Johnson's Band-Aid brand of bandages and first-aid supplies was ranked as the healthiest U.S. brand for a third straight year, per a consumer survey by researcher YouGov. Procter & Gamble's Dawn dish soap, Hershey's chocolate, M&M's candy and video-streaming service Netflix rounded out the top five.
• YouGov's BrandIndex tracker measures public perception of brand impression, quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation and reputation. Restaurants, airlines, automakers and retailers such as Amazon are noticeably absent from the latest list of top 10 brands, which also included Clorox bleach, Dove soap, Quaker oats, Samsung electronics and Pillsbury foodstuffs. 
• The most improved brands in the past year were United airlines, Equifax credit reporting, Ring video doorbells — which are owned by Amazon — and Zantac heartburn medicine, per YouGov. 

Dive Insight:

Band-Aid's top spot in YouGov's brand health ranking is positive for Johnson & Johnson, which currently faces consumer concerns and legal battles pertaining to the safety of its talc-containing products such as Johnson's Baby Powder and its marketing of opioids.

J&J's consumer products group, whose brands include Band-Aid and Tylenol medicine, rose 1.2% to $3.54 billion in Q2 2019 from a year earlier, a bright spot for the company whose total sales fell 1.3% to $20.6 billion for the period. However, the consumer products division recently eliminated the CMO position amid a broader cost-cutting push. The role has been led by Alison Lewis since its formation in 2013.

As YouGov notes, restaurants, airlines, automakers and retailers such as Amazon are absent from this year's top 10 list of healthiest brands. A year ago, Amazon was ranked No. 2 behind Band-Aid.

YouGov didn't provide an explanation for Amazon's sudden disappearance from the top 10. But the e-commerce giant has faced harsh criticism from politicians ranging from Donald Trump to presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Amazon is also among the tech-related companies that federal and state antitrust authorities are investigating.

While the negative publicity could be hurting some indicators of brand health, that's not necessarily reflected on the business end. Amazon reported a revenue gain of 20% to $63.4 billion in Q2 from the prior year.

United's improved brand health shows that the airline is recovering from negative media coverage of its treatment of passengers and a viral video that showed security guards dragging a man off of an overbooked flight. Among major U.S. airlines, United still ranks behind Southwest, Delta and American, according YouGov.