Professional Ethics, Compliance, and Standards
This domain tests whether you can advertise truthfully, substantiate claims, disclose material connections, and respect privacy and vulnerable audiences.
Core rules
- Claims must be truthful, not misleading, and substantiated before publication with competent and reliable evidence.
- Testimonials must reflect genuine experience. A 'results not typical' disclaimer does not cure a misleading overall impression.
- Disclose material connections clearly and conspicuously: influencer endorsements, paid partnerships, gifted products. The disclosure belongs in the content, before engagement, in the audience's language, not buried behind a link.
- Native advertising must be labeled so people recognize it as advertising.
- Privacy: lawful basis or consent, data minimization, honoring opt-outs, and special protections for children. In the US, COPPA restricts collecting personal data from children under 13; other markets have comparable rules.
- Regulated categories such as alcohol, gambling, tobacco, health, and financial products carry channel, audience, and claim restrictions.
Worked example
An influencer posts a supplement ad with the brand tag hidden after 'more.' The disclosure fails because it is not conspicuous. The claim 'clinically proven' needs the specific study, population, and outcome; a small unpublished study is not enough. If the audience skews under 18, targeting and data rules change, and the campaign may need age gates and exclusion. The fix is a pre-approval checklist covering disclosure placement, claim substantiation, and audience age.
Traps that cost marks
- Relying on a platform's paid-partnership label alone.
- 'Up to' claims without a realistic basis.
- Assuming a fine-print disclaimer fixes a misleading visual.
- Collecting children's data without consent.
- Applying home-market rules to a campaign running in another jurisdiction.