Global Yahoo Advertising Policies

• "Attention grabbing" mechanisms and/or animation with the sole purpose of distracting the user via repetitive, rapid flashing or blinking tactics or that has the potential to significantly distract users from editorial content or user experience is not acceptable. This includes images unrelated to the nature of the product being advertised. Loud, clashing or disruptive color combinations are not acceptable.
• Overly sensational, exaggerated or misleading ad copy is not acceptable, including but not limited to,

Words like "Shocking", "HATE" , "Alert", "Stop!", "Consumer Alert", "Breaking News", "Special Report", "Warning"

Phrases that directly address the user with an emotional appeal, such as "You'll be shocked..." or "You'll never believe"

• Advertising must not use scare tactics or otherwise prey on people's fears and insecurities.
• High-annoyance design elements such as arrows and circles that needlessly call attention to the advertisement are not acceptable.
• Advertisements must clearly display the name, brand or product being advertised on the creative to avoid the appearance of a Yahoo offering and/or to ensure the user is clear regarding the sponsor and responsibility for said advertisement. All ads large enough to fit branding must include it within the ad unit. All other ads must have clear branding on the landing page.
• Display ads should have a 1-pixel black border, or solid background color, to help distinguish them from page content.
• All offers presented must be consistent with the offers presented on the corresponding landing pages. All offers presented must correlate to the images being presented as part of the same advertisement.
• Advertising must deliver a relevant, positive and expected experience for consumers seeking products, services and content. Ads must be relevant to the product or service being offered on the landing page; offers depicted in an ad must be visible/available on the click-through landing page of the ad.
• Images may not imitate editorial content, emails, Messenger content, Flickr messaging or any other AOL/MSFT/Yahoo features which make it difficult for users to distinguish between the ad and Yahoo products.
• Creative may not resemble or alter Yahoo Homepage content at any time (i.e. resemble Yahoo buttons or editorial content).
• Before and after images are not allowed without review by the Yahoo Ad Policy Team.
• Landing pages cannot only contain a lengthy video that must be watched in order to learn about the offer.

Functionality that is not predictive or does not display an expected experience/outcome is not acceptable.

Any element designed to generate a click without relevant information or content at the destination is not acceptable.

Functionality such as inactive “close" icons within the ad or on the landing page that does not trigger expected behavior is not acceptable.

Dynamic user experiences within an ad must resolve to an expected, appropriate result on the landing page. For example, if a user is able to select a specific state (such as Washington) from a dropdown list in an ad, the landing page experience must meaningfully reflect the user’s choice (such as mortgage rates specific to Washington State).

Unacceptable:

• Static images of radio buttons
• Underlined text that appears to be a hyperlink but not actionable
• Inactive selection boxes or drop-downs
• Functionality that appears to make the ad page look broken or as if something is not working
• Functionality that impacts performance: general impact on performance, reliability, and quality of the user’s computing experience (e.g., slow computer performance, reduced productivity, corruption of the operating system, or other issues)
• Functionality that requires users to enter personal information (i.e., name, email address, phone number) in order to view information within the ad or landing page. Note: This does not apply to non-personal information such as zip-codes or a user’s city/region for ad targeting purposes.

• Video Ad Quality: Video advertising images and audio must be clear, high quality and play smoothly. Video content must be suitable for a general audience.
• Poor resolution, grainy looking images are not acceptable.
• Undecipherable or unidentifiable images are not acceptable.
• No interfering background or fuzzy logos; clean text required.
• Images and video cannot include phone numbers or contact information unless part of the company name (e.g., 1-800-Contacts).

• Language Match: Ads, landing pages and videos must all be in the same language, and the language must be one that a majority of the target audience will understand.
• US: Spanish language ads can link to landing pages in Spanish or English on a case by case basis on Yahoo O&O.
• In Taiwan and Hong Kong, ad copy in Simplified Chinese is disallowed.
• In Quebec, Canada, ad copy in any language other than French is disallowed.
• In France, ads that run on French properties must be in French unless they are targeted to non-French IPs.

• Sex/sexual situation: Sexually suggestive images of children/teenagers/adults (male or female) are not allowed.
• Breasts, cleavage, buttocks, groin, midriff/abs [or private body parts] may not be the focus of ad images
• Images that focus on individual body parts for sexually suggestive effect are prohibited. This may include, but is not limited to, images that are cropped directly below the breasts
• Disembodiment: Disembodiment of the human form to display only the breast, groin, midriff/abs, or buttock regions is unacceptable. Models should be shown in complete form including their head.
• Substantial bare skin/semi-revealing attire: Images that focus on substantial bare skin must comply with the all of the other guidelines in this section and are only acceptable if, a) they are relevant to the offer, e.g., the ad is for swimwear, deodorant, lingerie, etc., b) the person is clearly 18+, c) garments are not transparent, d) garments/poses are not considered erotic, e) it is not coupled with a sexual innuendo in the tagline, and f) the graphic is in good taste.

• Violence: Graphics or images containing gore are not allowed. Weapons cannot be presented in a violent or threatening manner. Weapons may not be pointing outward towards the user.

Capitalization

• Ads must use proper, grammatically correct capitalization.
• Ads may not use excessive or random capitalization, such as BIG SALE or AmAzinG.
• Acronyms may be capitalized.

Grammar, sentence structure and spelling

• Spelling and grammar in the ad title and ad text must be correct, unless the incorrect grammar is part of the corporate or product branding.
• Ads cannot include excessive repetition (such as "free, free, free").
• Use of numbers or letters in place of words (Back 2 School Sale; Gr8 Deals 4 U) is prohibited unless part of a brand name, such as Toys ‘R Us.

Punctuation

• Ads must include logical, correct punctuation.
• Ads cannot contain repeated and unnecessary punctuation, such as "Is someone looking for you?!?”
• Ad titles may not contain exclamation points.
• Exclamation points cannot be used in the title of any ad.

Symbols

• The use of all symbols, numbers or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol and ads cannot contain repeated and unnecessary symbols.
• Symbols may be used if the symbol is part of the product or brand name, paired with a dollar amount (e.g. "Save $50 today") or if the # symbol is used for comparative phrases (e.g. "Voted the #1").
• Masked vulgarity is not acceptable (e.g., “Huge A** Savings Today”, “Party Your Fu**in’ Pants Off”).
• Icons in ads (ex: bullets, arrows, markers, radio buttons) cannot distract users or that make the ad appear cluttered.

Numbers – Prices & Percentages

• Only one price or % allowed per product. This includes discounts and price reductions, such as 25% 50% off! or $99.99 $89.99 $79.99!

Use of fonts – font variety

• The use of multiple fonts in an ad should be limited to no more than three, and should be consistent throughout the creative (i.e. one font per ad text category – heading, call to action, body).
• Use of drop shadow or glow on ad text is not acceptable.
• Use of uncommon fonts or multiple font colors for the sole purpose of drawing attention/distracting the user is not acceptable.
• The font type guidelines above do not apply to corporate or product branding / logos, fonts within creative images, or legal/required disclosure text within the ad.

Use of fonts – font size

• Depending on location, certain publishers may require adherence to specific font size guidelines, in order to safeguard the user experience (example: Xbox Console).
• Advertisements must not have the look or feel normally associated with classified advertisements (i.e., cluttered and/or hard to read).
• Advertisements that contain strobing will be examined by the Accessibility team, and excessive strobing will not be accepted on Yahoo sites. For advertisers with managed accounts, please contact your Account Manager.

Each card requires a unique ad image.

Each card requires a unique ad title and description.

Ad titles/descriptions that are too similar are not allowed. They are considered too similar when:

• They are the same except for one or two words.
• They contain the same words in different order.
• They are the same except for punctuation.