Notes
A Compliant-by-Default Disclosure Checklist for AI Video Ads
Published
Compliance for AI video is mostly decided before anything is generated. This is the list we run internally, in the order the decisions actually happen.
Stage 1 — before a word is written
- Confirm the format: is this a spokesperson ad or is it pretending to be a customer? If the second, stop and change it now — it cannot be fixed later.
- Collect the substantiation for every claim you intend to make. If it isn't on file, the claim doesn't go in the script.
- Collect the prohibitions: claims your legal or compliance team has ruled out, and words you can't use.
- Check whether your category carries extra requirements — supplements, skincare, health, finance, kids.
Stage 2 — script review
- No first-person experience claims from the performer. No “I tried”, “I've been using”, “it worked for me”.
- No invented identity presented as a real buyer — no name, backstory or purchase history.
- No statements about compensation or independence, which cannot be true of a synthetic performer.
- Every product claim traceable to a specific piece of substantiation.
- Comparative claims checked against what you can actually evidence about the competitor.
Stage 3 — before upload
- AI disclosure applied — manually if the platform hasn't detected it automatically.
- Provenance metadata left intact. Never strip it.
- On TikTok, confirm the label state before the post accrues engagement, because it can't be removed afterwards.
- On Meta, assume the AI info indicator appears next to Sponsored and check the creative still reads correctly with it there.
Stage 4 — before spend
- Confirm the disclosure survived any re-cut, re-crop or re-upload.
- Confirm the organic and paid versions of the same asset carry consistent labelling.
- Keep a record: what was generated, with which tool, on what date, under which terms.
- Re-check platform policy if it's been more than a quarter. These rules move.
The one-line version
If your ad would still be honest with a caption reading “this presenter is AI-generated” burned across the middle of it, you're fine. If it wouldn't, no amount of disclosure fixes it.
This isn't legal advice. It's an operator's account of rules we work under every day. If you're making a call with real money or real exposure behind it, get it reviewed by someone qualified.
Our own version of this is contractual rather than aspirational — it's in the terms. If you want the constraints applied to your scripts rather than discovered in review, send them at intake.
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