Generative AI tools are all the rage in the ad world—but there are some places they won’t be an option.

Meta is restricting AI usage in political advertisements on its platform beginning next year, the company announced this week via blog post. The new measures entirely ban advertisers from using Meta’s own generative AI tools to create political or social issue-focused ads.

Label it: However, advertisers can still use third-party AI tools to generate content for ads, as long as the use of AI is disclosed in specific cases. Those cases include when an existing real-life person is depicted saying or doing something that they did not, when a realistic-looking person or incident that didn’t happen is depicted, when footage of a real event is altered, or when fake imagery of a real event is created.

There are some carve-outs. If AI alterations made are deemed “inconsequential or immaterial to the claim, assertion, or issue raised in the ad,” that does not need to be disclosed.

If an ad is tagged as digitally altered, Meta will “add information on the ad” in the form of a tag that appears if users click on the ad. If Meta determines that an advertiser failed to disclose AI use in an ad, that ad will be rejected, and repeat offenses may result in penalties against the advertiser.

Meta did not respond to requests for additional information on the nature of the penalties or how Meta will determine whether ads contain AI-generated content.

The policy will be enforced globally starting next year.

Read more here.—JS

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The IAB Tech Lab is asking everyone to get on the same page when it comes to deleting consumer data.

Last week, the trade group, which creates technical standards for the advertising industry, announced that it was seeking public comment on a framework that could be used to process consumer requests to delete their data. The work on a framework is borne out of lots of potential use cases, with the IAB noting consumers’ “Right to Delete” in some state-level privacy legislation and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“There’s not really an elegant framework to honor data deletion throughout the whole ad supply chain,” Anthony Katsur, the CEO of the IAB Tech Lab, told Marketing Brew. And the scope is admittedly pretty big—beyond just data brokers, data can also be shared through bid requests or through pixels embedded in ad creative.

The IAB is seeking input from industry stakeholders like SSPs, DSPs, exchanges, and publishers, Katsur said.

The IAB Tech Lab’s public comment period will remain open until December 2.

Keep reading here.—RB

In the world of streaming, it’s not a competition. Just kidding! It definitely is.

Now that we’re through another earnings season, we have updates from the major media companies about the global size of their streaming services and their forays into ad-supported streaming in what will likely be our last look at subscriber counts until 2024. While most companies are focused on profitability over sheer scale, size still matters—especially considering the necessary scale advertisers want to see on ad-supported tiers.

Here’s the rundown.

Netflix counted 247 million subscribers worldwide, nearly 9 million more than a quarter prior, ahead of its move to raise prices for ad-free viewing in the US, UK, and France. The company’s ad tier, which is just over a year old, has 15 million subscribers worldwide.

Disney+ ended the quarter with 112.6 million global subscribers, up 7 million from the prior quarter. More than half of new Disney+ subscribers in its most recent quarter opted for an ad-supported tier, CEO Bob Iger said.

• Hulu, which is soon to be fully owned by Disney, ended the quarter with 48.5 million subscribers, relatively flat compared to the prior quarter.
• ESPN+, also owned by Disney, ended the quarter with 26 million subscribers.

Max (fka HBO Max), Discovery+, and some smaller Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming services ended the quarter with a combined 95.1 million subscribers, marking the second consecutive quarter of subscriber losses at the company.

• Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav partially blamed the losses on “one of our lightest original content schedules in years” due, in part, to the lengthy writers’ and actors’ strikes.

Paramount+ ended the quarter with 63 million subscribers, 2.7 million more than the prior quarter. Advertising revenue in the company’s DTC sector, which also includes free ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV, was up 18% in the quarter.

Peacock cleared 28 million subscribers at quarter’s end, and is working on developing new ways to monetize streaming viewing, like through shoppable ads.

Read more here.—KS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

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Tomorrow, tomorrow: Instagram announced its 2023 Creators of Tomorrow, an initiative highlighting “diverse creators who are championing inclusivity while establishing culture and community online.”

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