Advertising Guidelines edit

WFA Community Advertising Guidelines

Date of Last Revision: February 26, 2009.


Advertising Philosophy

The core of the WFA Community brand is our user experience, and this experience is continually reinforced by our product's distinct look & feel, functionality, personality, and utility. Because WFA Community strives to make our product useful, everything that exists within the site should conform and contribute to the overall WFA Community user experience, including advertising.

WFA Community is committed to protecting our user experience by keeping the site clean, uncluttered, and free from intrusive advertising. We believe that we can help transform existing advertising on WFA Community into tailored messages to our users, because they are based on how their friends interact and affiliate with the brands, music artists, and businesses they care about.

WFA Community provides the following guidelines to help you communicate more effectively with your desired audience. Please note that all advertising placed within WFA Community must adhere to these guidelines, and WFA Community reserves the right to reject any advertising that we deem contrary to our ad philosophy. These guidelines are also subject to change at any time. WFA Community may waive any of these guidelines at its discretion.

Advertising Guidelines

NOTE: In addition to the guidelines below, all advertising on WFA Community must comply with our Privacy Policy andTerms of Use

  1. Accounts
    • Advertisers are not permitted to manage multiple online advertising accounts.
    • Advertisers must not programmatically automate the creation of accounts or ads.
  2. Landing pages / Destination URLs
    • Ads that contain a URL or domain in the body must link to that same URL or domain.
    • All users must be sent to the same landing page when the ad is clicked.
    • Landing pages that generate a pop-up (including "pop-overs" and "pop-unders") when a user enters or leaves the page are not allowed.
    • Landing pages cannot use "fake" close behavior (ie. when a user clicks the 'close' icon on the page, the page should close down and no other behavior should result).
    • Landing pages cannot utilize "mouse trapping" whereby the advertiser does not allow users to use their browser "back button" and traps them on their site and/or present any other unexpected behavior (for example: navigation to another ad or page).
    • No ad may require viewers clicking on the ad to submit personal information (phone numbers, physical addresses, or email addresses, etc.) on the landing page or in the ad, except to enable an ecommerce transaction and when the ad and landing page clearly indicate that a product is being sold.
    • A secure server connection (https) must be used when collecting personal information from users.
    • Ads and landing pages cannot contain WFA Community trademarks or logos, or otherwise reference WFA Community in the content of the landing page or its URL.
  3. Ad Copy
    • Ads must directly relate to the content on the landing page.
    • Ads must clearly state and represent the company, product, or brand that is being advertised.
    • Ads may not utilize a user attribute, such as age, gender, or location, unless it is directly relevant to the offer.
    • Ads may not insult a user.
  4. Grammar, sentence structure, spelling, and spacing
    • Ad text must be grammatically correct and contain proper sentence structure. All ad text must be in complete sentences.
    • Ads may not include excessive repetition (such as "buy, buy, buy").
    • Ads must use correct spelling.
    • Ad text must include grammatically correct spacing.
  5. Capitalization
    • Ads must use proper, grammatically correct capitalization.
    • Ads may not include excessive capitalization (such as "FREE") or incorrect capitalization (such as capitalizing the first letter of every word in a sentence).
    • The first letter of all proper nouns should be capitalized.
    • Acronyms may be capitalized.
    • The title of the ad, as well as the first word in each sentence, must begin with a capital letter.
  6. Punctuation
    • Ads must include logical, correct punctuation.
    • Repeated and unnecessary punctuation (such as "Buy now!!!") is not permitted.
    • All complete sentences (including if the ad title is a complete sentence) must end with a single punctuation mark. Ending a sentence with ellipses, dashes, etc is not permitted.
    • Exclamation points may not be used in the title of any ad.
  7. Symbols
    • The use of all symbols, numbers, or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.
    • Repeated and unnecessary symbols are not permitted.
    • Symbols may not be used:
      1. To substitute for letters (e.g. "$ave" instead of "save").
      2. To substitute for entire words (e.g. "&" instead of "and" or "$" instead of "cash/dollars/money").
      3. As unnecessary abbreviations to shorten character count (e.g. "w/" instead of "with" or "@" instead of "at").
    • Symbols may be used:
      1. If the symbol is part of the product or brand name.
      2. If the $ symbol is paired with a dollar amount (e.g. "Save $100 today").
      3. If the # symbol is used for comparative phrases (e.g. "Voted the #1 site by NY Times").
  8. Language and image content
    • Provocative images will not be accepted.
    • Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote adult content, including nudity, sexual terms and/or images of people in positions or activities that are excessively suggestive or sexual.
    • Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote offensive, profane, vulgar, obscene, or inappropriate language.
    • Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote defamatory, libelous, slanderous and/or unlawful content.
  9. Prohibited Content We do not accept advertising referencing, facilitating or prompting the following:
    • Tobacco products
    • Ammunition, firearms, paintball guns, bb guns, or weapons of any kind
    • Gambling, including without limitation any online casino, sports books, bingo, or poker
    • Software downloads, freeware, or shareware
    • Scams, illegal activity and/or illegal contests, pyramid schemes, or chain letters
    • Uncertified pharmaceutical products
    • Adult friend finders or dating sites with a sexual emphasis
    • Adult toys, videos, or other adult products
    • Web cams or surveillance equipment
    • Web-based non-accredited colleges that offer degrees
    • Inflammatory religious content
    • Politically religious agendas and/or any known associations with hate, criminal and/or terrorist activities
    • Political content that exploits political agendas or uses "hot button" political issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda
    • Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation or language of such individual or group
    • Content that advocates against any organization, person, or group of people, with the exception of candidates running for public office
    • Content that depicts a health condition in a derogatory or inflammatory way or misrepresents a health condition in any way
    • Ads for dating sites, services, or related content
    • Ads with adult themes, including contraception, sex education, and health conditions
    • Ads for Alcoholic Beverages
  10. Targeting
    • Targeting is not allowed on any WFA Community page directed any group, or individual WFA Community Member.
  11. WFA Community references
    • Ads are not permitted to mention or refer to WFA Community, its site or its brand in any manner, including in the title, body, image, or destination URLs.
    • Ads must not use WFA Community logos, trademarks, or site terminology.
    • WFA Community site features may not be emulated.
  12. Ads for Alcoholic Beverages
    • Ads for Alcoholic Beverages are not allowed on any WFA Community Page.
    • Ads may not promote any giveaways as a reward for purchasing the alcoholic product.
    • Distributors of Alcoholic Beverages as listed under the current and paid WFA Membership are allowed for company representation on the WFA Community, but not allowed to promote individual products, promotions, give-aways or advertising of the distributed products as distributed by the company.
  13. No incentives
    • No ad may offer incentives to viewers for clicking on the ad, for submitting personal information (phone numbers, social security numbers, physical addresses, email addresses, etc.), or for performing any other tasks.
  14. Prices, discounts, and free offers
    • No ad may be deceptive or fraudulent about any offer it makes.
    • If an ad includes a price, discount, or 'free' offer, the destination URL for the ad must link to a page that clearly and accurately offers the exact deal the ad has displayed.
    • If an ad includes a price, discount, or 'free' offer, the advertisement must clearly state what action or set of actions is required to qualify for the offer.
  15. Copyrights and trademarks
    • In both ad text and image, you must not include any content that may be deemed as infringing upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary right, or that is deceptive or fraudulent.
    • Advertiser must have intellectual property rights to the creative and be permitted to display such creative as advertising on the WFA Community Site.
  16. Spam
    • No ad may contain, facilitate or promote 'spam' or other advertising or marketing content that violates applicable laws, regulations or industry standards.
  17. Downloads
    • No ad is permitted to contain or link, whether directly or indirectly, to a site that contains software downloads, freeware, or shareware.
    • No ad is permitted to facilitate or promote (or contain a link to a site that facilitates or promotes)
      1. Collection of demographic and usage information from a user's computer without the user's express consent,
      2. Collection or request of usernames or passwords from any user,
      3. Proxying user names or passwords for the purpose of automating logins to the WFA Community site,
      4. Containing or distributing any software that (i) "sneaks" onto a user's system and performs activities hidden to the user, (ii) may alter, harm, disable or replace any hardware or software installed on user's computer without express permission from the user, (iii) is bundled as a hidden component of other software whether free or for fee, (iv) automatically downloads without WFA Community's express prior approval, (v) presents any download dialog boxes without a user's express action, or (vi) may violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, patent or any other proprietary right
  18. Subscription Services
    • The advertisement of Subscription Services must comply with the conditions noted below and as determined by WFA Community in its sole discretion. "Subscription Services" may include sites that promote downloading ringtones, wallpaper, or text messages for predictions, love life advice, news, personality quizzes, or other entertainment services or any site that induces a user to sign up for recurring billing of a product or service.
    • Subscription Services conditions:
      1. The promoted website clearly and accurately displays the pricing
      2. If your site requires users to submit personal information, your site must prominently display the price and billing interval (such as per week or once per month) on the page where users first enter personal information (such as a name or phone number).
      3. If users sign up to your service by transmitting a code by text message, the price and billing interval must be clearly and prominently displayed beside the code.
      4. If your service is a subscription, you must provide a prominent opt-in checkbox or other clear mechanism indicating that the user knowingly accepts the price and subscription service. This should be on the first page users enter personal data, and the user should not be able to proceed without opting in.
      5. All of the items above should be located in a prominent place on your webpage and should be easy to find, read, and understand.