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/ 08.19.2010 3:00PM
Oxenford: Tag Political Ads With Names and Faces
WASHINGTON: State and local political ads require the voice
or the picture of the candidate, despite rumors to the contrary, according to
David Oxenford at Davis Wright Tremaine LLC.
“One... misconception that seems to be circulating this year is that an ad
for a state or local political candidate does not need to have their voice or
picture to be a ‘use’ under FCC rules,” he writes. “Only ‘uses’
are entitled to lowest unit rates and subject to the no
censorship provisions. For some reason, agencies in several states have
tried to convince broadcasters that, as long as a spot has a sponsorship
identification at the end... that spot is a ‘use.’”
Not true, Oxenford says at DWT’s
Broadcast
Law Blog. An FCC ‘use’ requires the recognizable voice and picture of the
candidate--even local and state candidates. He said some advertisers could be
confusing a near decade-old rule change requiring federal candidates to
personally identify themselves in campaign ads and state that they approve of
the message.
“Perhaps some of the advertisers think that, because the law for federal
candidate is so detailed, and because it does not specifically cover state
candidates... there is no requirement at all for state and local candidates
to appear in their ads,” he says. “But they are not correct. For a spot to be a
‘use,’ a candidate him or herself must have a recognizable voice or image in
that ad.”
Oxenford said it’s not illegal for a station to run a state or local candidate’s
ad without that person’s voice, but it would render the spot other than a ‘use’ as
defined by the FCC. It would not be entitled to the lowest unit rates, for
example, and is not covered by the censorship prohibition that does apply to ‘use.’
Oxenford’s complete post can be read at DWT’s
Broadcast
Law Blog.
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