Disney+ Canada Advertising Inventory Guidelines
Updated: October 2023
These guidelines (“Guidelines”) apply to purchases of advertising inventory in Canada on the Disney+ application (“Disney+”). These Guidelines are incorporated into and are part of the applicable insertion order terms and programmatic sales terms. The Guidelines do not, and cannot, provide an exhaustive list of guidelines or examples, and Disney+ (including its agent or appointed representative) reserves the right to review, accept, decline, suggest modifications to, or remove any and all advertising on a case-by-case basis. Disney+ also reserves the right to approve exceptions to these Guidelines on a case-by-case basis. Disney+ may update these guidelines from time to time without notice, so please check in and review them regularly.
- Disclosures for Advertising Materials. Advertising materials and the advertising sponsor must be clearly identifiable and may not be disguised as editorial content or programming as determined by Disney+. The method of disclosure can differ depending on the platform, target audience, and type of advertising, but in all cases must be clear and conspicuous. Similarly, disclosures concerning a product, service or offer, such as how a product works, what is included with a product, service or offer, or what is excluded from a product, service or offer, must be made clear and conspicuous to a reasonable consumer.
- Substantiation, Legality, Third Party Rights. Advertisers must be able to substantiate (i.e., with existing evidence) any express or implied claims conveyed in the advertising materials, including any such claims made through endorsers. An advertised offer must be fulfilled as stated in the advertisement, and advertisements may only portray or make claims about the product or service being advertised that are accurate and truthful. Advertisements must not be false or misleading and must not infringe or violate any third party’s rights. The advertising materials and delivery thereof must comply with all applicable federal, provincial/territorial and local laws, including without limitation advertising, privacy and consumer protection laws, and with the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, which can be found at https://adstandards.ca/code/the-code-online/.
- Advertising Specifications. Advertising materials must comply with Disney+’s advertising specifications, which can be found at https://www.disneyadvertising.com/mediakit/disneyplus/.
- Third Party Technology. All third party technology included in or appended to advertising by or on behalf of the advertiser, including any tags, pixels or other software code utilized for brand safety, invalid traffic/fraud or viewability, shall be subject to Disney+’s prior written approval, and, wherever necessary, user consent.
- Advertiser Landing Page. Where personal information is solicited on the advertiser’s landing page, (i) any collection of personal information must be in full compliance with all privacy laws, (ii) the advertiser must clearly explain to the consumer how the advertiser will use the personal information collected, and (iii) the advertiser must provide a clear and conspicuous link to its privacy policy on the landing page from the advertisement and provide users a mechanism for opting out of or opting into data collection where required by law.
- Language. Advertisements must be in English or French.
- Food or Beverage Advertising. Advertising of food, beverages, restaurants and food services are subject to the following restrictions:
- Advertising of food, beverages, restaurants, and food services must comply with applicable law and advertising industry codes and standards with respect to advertising directed at children, including but not limited to the Food and Drugs Act (Canada), the Food and Drug Regulations, the Code for the Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children available at: https://adstandards.ca/wp-content/uploads/FoodAndBeverageAdvertisingCode-FINAL-20230505.pdf (“Child-Directed Food and Beverage Restrictions”) and must meet Disney’s Nutritional Guideline policy and receive Disney+ approval prior to being served. Food and beverages that do not meet the Child-Directed Food and Beverage Restrictions or Disney’s Nutritional Guideline criteria (found at https://twdchealthyliving.com/nutrition-criteria/nutritional-calculator) cannot be advertised to children and are subject to programming restrictions.
- Advertising for food, beverages, restaurants and food services that do not meet the Child-Directed Food and Beverage Restrictions or Disney’s Nutritional Guideline criteria (e.g., sugar-sweetened beverages, candy/treats, junk chips, some quick service restaurants) should be targeted only to adults. For example, the look and feel of the advertising should be adult-oriented and kid-appealing artwork or language cannot be used (e.g., no animated characters).
- Prohibited Content. The following list describes content within advertising that is not acceptable in Disney+ Advertising Inventory:
- Content that is reasonably determined to be harmful, threatening, obscene, fraudulent, harassing, defamatory, including mere attacks of a personal nature, attacks on an individual business, or a comment on a private dispute
- Claims or representations that could be interpreted as wrongfully discriminatory based on race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, disability, or age, or any other prohibited categories under applicable human rights laws.
- Sensationalism (e.g., killer bees, gossip, aliens, scandal, etc.)
- Inflammatory, graphic, or offensive content, language or images, including expletives and partial expletives, bad language and proxies for bad language (e.g., X@#%!, bleeped out language, etc.), graphic violence, and gratuitous use of guns/ammunition/firearms/weapons, tobacco or vaping products, alcohol, illegal drugs, and marijuana
- Content that includes excretory references (animal or human)
- Content that potentially encourages imitation of unsafe, inappropriate or otherwise illegal behavior
- Illegal activities or references to products and/or services used to assist in furtherance of illegal activities
- Content that includes emergency alerts based on the National Public Alerting System or sound-alike tones
- Content that mimics news techniques (e.g., “breaking news” language, a news ticker, etc.) or has the appearance of being a news report
- Sexually explicit or suggestive content including sexualized full or partial nudity, sexual innuendo, double entendres, etc. (non-sexualized partial nudity will be considered on a case-by-case basis)
- Materials that infringe or assist others to infringe on any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights
- Unauthorized or unapproved uses of Disney+ or a Disney+ affiliate’s products, services, creative assets (e.g., talent, characters, movie or show titles and logos, show imagery, colour scheme, font(s)) or employees of the Walt Disney Company family of brands
- Content or imagery that copies, mimics, parodies, or mocks current or past advertising creative of any of The Walt Disney Company family of brands
- An implied yet unauthorized affiliation or favoured status with any of The Walt Disney Company family of brands
- Any content that includes the unauthorized use of intellectual property owned or otherwise controlled by The Walt Disney Company family of brands, including but not limited to the Disney brand’s name, trademark or logo in any form (e.g., voiceover, promotional codes, text overlay, etc.)
- Content that contains or promotes spyware, malware or other harmful code
- Content that implies interactivity but is not in fact interactive, or the interactivity is not otherwise approved by Disney+, e.g., call-to-action buttons, URLs, hashtags and QR codes
- Any content that directly links to content that contains any of the above prohibited content
- Additional Content Considerations. Advertisers who incorporate any regulated content or messaging should do so in compliance with all applicable laws and industry guidelines, including without limitation the following:
- Animals — use or misuse of
- Contests, giveaways, lotteries
- Cosmetic claims
- Currency
- Environmental claims
- Financial claims (including loans, leasing, credit, financing, layaway, financial product benefits and risks, etc.)
- Foreign language
- Governmental flags or symbols
- Health and nutrition claims
- Product demonstrations
- Public symbols/leaders
- Behaviour requiring safety equipment
- Visual effects
- Telephone numbers as props
- White coat as wardrobe or prop in context of health and beauty claims
- Prohibited Products, Services, Industries or Categories. Advertising for the following products, services, industries or categories is not accepted:
- Guns, ammunition, firearms and related dangerous products
- Illicit drugs and related products and services (with the exception of anti-drug campaigns approved by Disney+)
- Cannabis, marijuana, CBD and related products and services
- Products or services that are adult-themed or of a sexually explicit nature (e.g., pornography, sex sites, adult magazines, escort or paid dating, sex toys, “900” or “976” telephone services, pay-per-call)
- Vaping and tobacco (e.g., cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco) and related products and services, including nicotine (with the exception of anti-smoking campaigns approved by Disney+)
- Movies with a rating of “X” or “NC-17”
- Credit repair services, bail bonds, pay day loans, and similar services
- Money-making opportunities
- Religion and religious themed ads
- Death and death-related products and services (e.g., funerals, funeral homes, cemeteries, mortuaries)
- Alcohol (e.g., beer, wine, malt beverages, hard seltzer, hard liquor, including zero-proof alcohol)
- Cryptocurrency and Non Fungible Token (“NFT”)- related services
- Gambling, casinos, sports betting, and fantasy leagues (but excluding legal lotteries, contests and giveaways)
- Political (e.g., lobbyists, political action committees, political parties, candidates for elected office, ballot measures, referendums, advocacy groups, etc.)
- Controversial issues
- Prescription pharmaceuticals and medical devices
- Sexual health (e.g., condoms, contraceptives, personal lubricants, pregnancy tests, erectile dysfunction medication)
- Online or other dating services and personals
- Undergarments, lingerie (but not athletic wear like sports bras)
- “M”, “AO” or “RP” rated video games
- all linear and streaming programming titles
- Black magic, astrology, horoscopes, occult, paranormal and psychic services
- Cosmetic or body modification procedures, including tanning in an ultraviolet device and plastic surgery
- Any direct business competitor of The Walt Disney Company family of brands (e.g., theme parks, movies, streaming services, etc.)
- Products, Services, Industries and Categories reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The following products, services, industries or categories will be considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration various factors, including, without limitation, appropriateness of advertising content and product, programming restrictions, and age and location targeting restrictions:
- Dietary, vitamins, and nutritional supplements and weight loss drugs, products and services, including slimming products such as diet pills, food substitutes such as slimming shakes, services such as weight loss programs
- Over-the-counter medicines, including cough, cold, pain relief, and allergy treatments
- Violent sports and recreational activities (e.g., MMA)
- Contests, giveaways, lotteries
- Government, non-profit, non-governmental organizations, charitable services, including public service announcements
- Movies and video games (not included in section 10 above)
- Professional services (e.g., legal services, doctor’s offices, etc.)
- Advertising of products that may raise science and environmental issues (e.g., hunting, energy/fossil fuels, forestry/lumber, agriculture, chemicals, minerals, plastics, wildlife tourism, zoos and aquariums, etc.)
- Guidelines applicable to Disney+ Advertising Inventory directed to U18 users. In addition to the guidelines above, the following additional guidelines apply to advertising directed to users whose profile indicates that they are under 18 years old (“U18”).
- Disclosures. In addition to text disclosures, audio disclosures should be used to make material disclosures.
- Interactivity. Advertisements to U18 users should not include interactive features like call-to-action buttons, URLs, hashtags, and QR codes.
- Entertainment Software Products (e.g., console games, mobile games). Industry sponsored ratings for entertainment software products must be disclosed in video and audio. For more information on ESRB ratings, go to esrb.org.
- Films and Videos. Advertisers should take care to ensure that only age-appropriate videos and films are advertised in this inventory. If a provincial film board or authority rating system or the Canadian Home Video Rating System applies to the product, the rating label must be prominently displayed.
- Food and Beverages. Per Section 7 above, advertising for food and beverages that do not meet Canadian industry codes and standards, and Disney’s Nutritional Guidelines policy cannot be advertised to U18 users and are subject to programming restrictions.
- Products Labeled “Keep out of reach of children”. Advertising for products that are labeled “Keep out of reach of children” but are of benefit to U18 users, e.g. sunscreen or dental products, should depict adult supervision. In such cases, advertisers must be able to support the implied claim that the product does not present a danger to U18 users.
- Products, Services, Industries and Categories. Advertising for products, services, industries and categories listed in section 10 will not be accepted in this inventory. Advertising for products, services, industries and categories listed in section 11 above will generally not be accepted, though Disney+ will consider advertising for some products that could be appropriate for U18 users (e.g., U18-appropriate contests, PSAs, over-the-counter medicines, etc.) on a case-by-case basis.
- Province of Quebec only. In addition to the guidelines above, the following additional guidelines apply to advertising directed to users who are in the province of Quebec.
- Compliance. The advertising materials and delivery thereof must comply with Quebec laws, including the Quebec Consumer Protection Act prohibition of commercial advertising directed at children under 13 years old and the restrictions on the use of personal information for ad targeting under the Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector (especially with respect to profiling). For more information, see: https://cdn.opc.gouv.qc.ca/media/documents/consommateur/sujet/publicite-pratique-illegale/EN_Guide_publicite_moins_de_13_ans_vf.pdf and P-39.1 – Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (gouv.qc.ca).
- Additional Prohibited Products, Services, Industries or Categories. The following products, services, industries or categories are not accepted for advertisements directed to U18 users:
- Video games and consoles
- Additional Products, Services, Industries and Categories reviewed on a case-by-case basis. For advertisements directed to U18 users, the following products, services, industries or categories will only be considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration various factors, including, without limitation, appropriateness of advertising content and product, programming restrictions, and age and location targeting restrictions:
- Consumer packaged goods (CPG) in the Home, Beauty, or Pet category
- Retail
- Automobiles
- Events
- Schools & Universities
- Shipping, Freight & Office supplies
- Technology and telecommunication devices, including televisions, devices, tablets and personal computers
- Travel
- Utilities
