Legals on a Spot :: Standards?

[Jeff Markgraf]

Well, as you’ve discovered, there really aren’t any set in stone standards. I can tell you that at the network (ABC), legal could get pretty cranky about disclaimers & rules.

We rarely went below 18 points (as in an 18 point font on a Chyron) for contest rules and other disclaimers. Otherwise it gets pretty hard to read. They didn’t usually specify a font, but a sans serif like helvetica or futura was more readable at that small size. 90 or 100 percent opacity, with a 1 or 2 line drop shadow or edge to make the text stand out a bit.

The goal was “plausible readability”- almost no one was expected to read the stuff, but they “could” if they really wanted to.

The bigger fight was usually to reduce the required info to a bare minimum. 4 lines maximum for anywhere from 3 to 6 seconds seemed to be the best compromise. The phrase “for full rules, go to abc.com” made life much easier and covered a multitude of sins. Because if it’s a contest, they WILL get sued if there’s even a hint of not following the rules to the letter.

Car spots and other actual advertising seems to play by different rules. There’s no way anyone can hope to read those disclaimers, and no one seems to mind. Stations (and networks) want the ad dollars, so they look the other way. I’ve never heard of a spot getting rejected because the legals were too small, but i’ve never seen a spot with legals much smaller than that 18 point limit.

One last point: most stations run breaks from a server (small markets still use tape playback). These servers use lots of compression, and the spots generally look pretty bad. Text, in particular, degrades very quickly. So that mouse type turns into a blur of pixellated text. As do small graphic elements. Not pretty, and kind of calling attention to the too-small font.

So your best bet is to try to reduce the word count as much as possible, and make what has to be there at least minimally readable, even when compressed. Make the legal department your friend, and you may surprised at how muck slack they’ll cut you on disclaimers.

[Jay Rudin]

Christy,
I agree with you that the standards are vague and I’ve been frustrated before trying to get answers to other legal questions from the FCC. They were very difficult to deal with especially considering I was simply trying to find out the rules so I could abide by them.
I also think Bob has an anger issue and you should ignore his pompous insulting attitude. This is normally a friendly, helpful and supportive forum and there’s no place or reason for rudeness.
Good Luck,
Jay