Universal Ads Advertising Guidelines

The Universal Ads Advertising Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) provide general creative guidance in an effort to protect viewers from fraud, scams, and unsafe and discriminatory practices, and ensure a positive viewer experience.  Advertisers utilizing Universal Ads for the creation and distribution of advertisements are required to comply with these Guidelines and ensure that their advertisements are tasteful, truthful, and in compliance with all applicable laws, government regulations, including the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), and the Federal Drug Administration (“FDA”), as well as self-regulatory group guidelines and all laws, rules, and regulations that relate to the placement of ads through online behavioral advertising and to the delivery of ads to children (“Applicable Law”).

Universal Ads requires all advertisers to provide substantiation that establishes a reasonable basis for all claims made in their advertisements. All advertisements will be subject to review to ensure compliance with these Guidelines and individual publisher guidelines. Advertisements remain subject to re-review and may be rejected for violating Applicable Law, these Guidelines or individual publisher guidelines at any time.

Unacceptable Content

Advertisements with content that is illegal or otherwise considered unacceptable to viewers are prohibited. Specifically, Universal Ads will not accept any Advertisements that contain the following:

• Deceptive, Offensive, Inappropriate Content: Advertisements cannot be deceptive, misleading, defamatory, libelous, obscene, distasteful, racially or ethnically offensive, harassing, or that is discriminatory based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, color, creed, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected groups.
• Explicit Adult and/or Obscene Content: Advertisements that are sexually explicit, pornographic, and/or obscene.
• Illegal activities, products, services: Advertisements cannot facilitate or promote illegal activities, products, or services, or contain content that is illegal.
• Infringing activity: Advertisements that infringe upon or violate any right of any third party, including, without limitation, any intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights.

Prohibited Categories

Advertisements that promote products or services that fall into one of the following categories are prohibited and will not be accepted by Universal Ads for distribution on any platform*:

• Alcohol: Advertisements promoting beer, wine, hard cider, malt beverages, hard liquor, distilled spirits, and/or wine.
• Cannabis, Illicit/Illegal Drugs, Drug Paraphernalia: Advertisements promoting medical and/or recreational cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD), illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, and retail establishments that sell these products.
• Dietary Supplements and Homeopathic Remedies: Advertisements promoting herbs, botanicals, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other ingestibles intended to be a nutritional or food supplement, or alternative medicines derived from natural sources.
• Financial, Banking, Loans: Advertisements promoting financial services, banking services, credit cards, lending services, insurance services, stocks, bonds, brokerages, trading services, and cryptocurrencies and related products and services.
• Firearms, Weapons, Ammunition, Fireworks, Explosives: Advertisements promoting firearms, weapons, ammunition, firearm and weaponry paraphernalia/accessories, pepper spray, fireworks, and explosives.
• Gambling, Casinos, Fantasy Sports:  Advertisements promoting or facilitating casino gambling, sports gambling, fantasy sports, and organizations and companies primarily involved in gambling or gaming activities, including casinos, horse/dog racing tracks, off-track betting, and state-run lotteries.
• Pharmaceuticals/Prescription Drugs: Advertisements promoting direct-to-consumer prescription drugs and pharmaceutical products and services.
• Political: Advertisements promoting a candidate for public office or a point of view on a controversial issue or ballot referendum of national, regional, or local importance.
• Religious Organizations, Issues, and Causes: Advertisements relating to religious organizations and/or their charitable causes and endeavors.
• Tobacco: Advertisements promoting cigarettes, little cigars, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes/inhalers, vapor or vaping products, chewing tobacco, snuff tobacco, nicotine, or other products promoting smoking and/or tobacco use.
• Weight Loss Products/Services: Advertisements for products or services for the reduction, gain, or control of weight.

*Individual Publishers may prohibit additional categories of advertising.

Landing Pages

Landing Pages must also comply with quality standards, including:

• General: Landing pages may not contain any of the prohibited content or behaviors outlined above
• Offers: The offers or products advertised in the creative should match those available on the landing page
• Forceful redirect: Landing pages should not forcefully redirect the user to other pages or content

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