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Federal Election Commission | United States of America

Coordinated party communication using adapted disclaimer

This is an example of an image-based internet communication on which an adapted disclaimer may be used. Click the indicator (+) for the full disclaimer.

Paid for by the XYZ Party Committee and authorized by Emily George-Adams for Congress

If an internet ad is authorized by the candidate or campaign but paid for by a political action committee, a party committee or another person, the communication must identify the person who paid for it and state that it was authorized by the candidate or campaign.

Internet public communications that include text or graphic components are required to include a written disclaimer that can be viewed without taking any action. The text of the disclaimer must be large enough to be clearly readable by the recipient of the communication. Disclaimer text that is at least as large as the majority of other text in the communication satisfies this requirement. The disclaimer must also be displayed with a reasonable degree of color contrast between the background and the disclaimer’s text. A disclaimer satisfies this requirement if it is:

  • Displayed in black text on a white background; or
  • If the degree of color contrast is no less than the color contrast between the background and the largest text used in the communication.

When the full disclaimer cannot be provided or would occupy more than 25 percent of the communication due to character or space constraints intrinsic to the advertising product or medium, an adapted disclaimer may be used to satisfy the disclaimer requirement.

An adapted disclaimer is a clear statement that the internet public communication is paid for, identifying the person or persons who paid for it using their full name or a commonly understood abbreviation or acronym by which the payor is known, and is accompanied by an indicator and a mechanism.

In this example, a clearly readable disclaimer would occupy more than 25 percent of the communication. As a result, the committee has included an adapted disclaimer – “Paid for XYZ Party” – on the face of the ad, along with an indicator (+) and a mechanism (pop-up text) to access the full disclaimer.


Learn more about advertising and disclaimers