Real old thread with the TC long gone, I know, but it's also the top result for "Bannatyne Research", so I figured I'd clear it up for anyone who comes Googling, since the name's been reactivated this year.
Calls from Bannatyne Research are not a scam or marketing call, and they're not medical research, they're a political survey company. More specifically, it's a shell company the NDP has set up for whatever survey company or companies they hire to use, because nobody is stupid enough to do political research under their own name and drag their company through the mud. Common practice in the industry to have tons of aliases like that, in case of divisive surveys, so it doesn't stain the original company's reputation.
Regarding the "youngest" thing, it's very common for such surveys to have several criteria and the system will randomly pick one for the surveyor to read. I've seen everything from "youngest over 18/21/30/40" to "had the most recent birthday", to "whose name is alphabetically first" to "most recently left the country", to "is wearing a red shirt" (with other colours to go through in order in case of no red). It's just a way to ensure a random sample of the population while also ensuring gender/age quotas if requested.
The Do Not Call list didn't work because the DNC is for marketing. Research companies (including surveys) and political parties are not affected. However, they *are* required to keep their own internal DNC lists. If you get one of these calls, and you don't want any more, don't just hang up (the system reads it as a lost connection and schedules you automatically for a call in the future), don't tell them you're busy (they'll call back in a few days), and don't tell them you decline to participate (that will save you from the current survey, but not from any future ones). You must tell them "I want to be put on your Do Not Call list". The surveyor is more than happy to do that, since they don't want to talk to someone who doesn't want to participate, and the company is happy, because every number on the DNC saves them from ever again calling that person who wouldn't participate in other studies anyway.
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