• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 18, 2018

As part of the ad industry’s self-regulatory effort to disclose the source of political advertising in digital media, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) this morning released creative implementation guidelines for its new “Political Ad” icon.

The initiative, which was unveiled in May, is part of the DAA’s overall effort to increase transparency and accountability in digital advertising, but the political disclosure effort takes on new impetus in the wake of disruptive activity by hostile foreign agents disseminating fake news and fake ads, including political ones.

“The new guidelines outline the creative specifications necessary for U.S. federal and state political advertisers to create and display the Political Ad icon in express advocacy ads,” the DAA explains, adding that it just welcomed Maryland as the first state to authorize it for its state-wide political ad disclosures.

The creative guidelines can be downloaded here, and the icon should link to standardized disclosures including:

• Name of the political advertiser;

• Phone number, address, website, or alternative and reliable contact information for the advertiser;

• Other information required by applicable federal or state law for such notices;

• Link to a government database of contributions and expenditures for the advertiser, if applicable;

• Any disclaimers required by state or federal law, if the ad itself is too small to display them (as permitted by applicable law); and

• Name(s) of the advertiser's CEO, executive committee, board of directors or treasurer.