North Idaho Exclusive

Advertising Guidelines & Acceptance Policies

1. Overview

The policies in this page apply to all advertisements and coupons. As the advertiser, it is your responsibility to comply with all state and federal laws, rules, and regulations that apply to your ads and any location where the ads appear adhering to the requirements of all advertisements set forth by the Office of the Attorney General of Idaho.

In addition, you must comply with our ad policies for the ad campaigns run with North Idaho Exclusive. If your ads do not comply with our ad policies, your campaigns may not be approved until you fix the policy violation. North Idaho Exclusive may suspend or terminate your ad account(s) for policy violations. Please review the policies in this section to learn about our content restrictions.

1.1 Advertising eligibility

Our publication is intended to promote locally-owned businesses with physical locations in North Idaho, defined as the following counties: Boundary, Bonner, Benewah, Clearwater, Kootenai, Idaho, Lewis, Latah, Shoshone, or Nez Perce. To qualify as locally owned, at least one owner of each business must reside in North Idaho or within 50 miles of the business’s North Idaho location. Our intention is to serve businesses that are North Idaho owned and based, providing connection between individuals in our local communities.

The North Idaho Exclusive publication is focused on but not limited to businesses in the dining, retail, entertainment sectors. We reserve the right to refuse advertising service based on availability of ad space and a potential advertiser’s alignment with our publication’s focus. 

2. Ad format and functionality

Please ensure that your ad format complies with the following guidelines:

• All images and artwork must be legible and of a high resolution.
• Creatives should not interfere with legibility of ad templates.
• Ad submissions must be 728x90, 800x90, 300x250, 160x600, 245x135 or 900x45.

3. Content requirements

The following content requirements apply to all elements of your ads: custom text, brand logos, images, and images. You must have proper rights of use for all images and logos.

3.1 General requirements

Your ads must:

• Be suitable for a general audience.
• Accurately reflect your business and offer.
• Be in the primary language of the North Idaho Exclusive site on which the ad is displayed.
• Be clear and accurate so that customers receive correct information before engaging with an ad or deciding to purchase a product
• Only promote products that you either own or are authorized to resell or distribute.

The products displayed in the ad should be eligible for the program and the ad should only represent eligible products.

3.2 Product images

Product images should have rights held by the adviser and be of high resolution.

3.3 Brand logo

Ads require your brand's logo so customers can readily identify you as the advertiser. Brand logos provide a better experience for shoppers and help drive more engagement with your brand and products.

As the brand logo may be used for a variety of different ad formats, it is important that your logo meets these brand logo guidelines. If you do not have a brand logo that meets our print requirements.

A brand logo is your brand’s registered logo and not of the brand you are promoting, unless you have the legal right to use the promoted brands logo. Brand logos must:

• Fill the entire image. If your logo does not fill the entire image it must be placed on a solid color background that fills the entire image.
• Accurately reflect the brand or product you are promoting.

Brand logos must not be on a complex graphical background and must be visually appealing. Logos cannot:

• Be a product, ASIN (including cropped versions), custom or lifestyle image or combination.
• Be used as an extension of the headline nor contain additional text.
• Be a combination of logos.
• Contain crowded or cluttered elements.

Entertainment advertisers such as film and TV may also use the following, provided these images are also found on the product packaging or product detail page or author page:

• An actor or related character image.
• Product-related icons, such as a spider’s web for a Spiderman film.
• Film and TV series titles with a relevant overlay or imprinted on a relevant background.

Ads featuring music products can incorporate the following elements into the logo slot:

• Music Label Logo or Artist Logo that:Fills the entire image. If your logo does not fill the entire image, it must be placed on a solid color background that fills the entire image.
• Artist Name or Alias
• Artist Image
• Element from Artist's Album Cover

3.4 Call to action (CTA)

We recommend the use of a CTA in your ad to improve your ad’s performance, but the presence of a CTA is not required.

If you use a CTA in your headline ad copy, the CTA must:

• Be clear and precise.
• Not use language that may pressure customers into taking action such as “Last Chance” or “Don’t Miss Out,” or emotionally charged language.

3.5 Claims and substantiations

All advertisements are subject to review. North Idaho Exclusive reserves the right to require modifications to ads, block ads, revoke approval of an ad, and/or require factual substantiation for an ad. The advertiser is fully responsible for ensuring that the claims, commitments, and representations in its ads and other relevant materials are truthful, accurate, complete, and not misleading. This includes, but is not limited to, efficacy, awards, origin, and components claims. Claims in ads must not be limited or contradicted on the product detail page, product website, landing page, or in other advertiser materials.

3.6 Keyword and product targeting

The keywords or products targeted in your Ads must be relevant to the product being promoted. Ads must not target keywords or products that could result in an offensive, insensitive, or undesirable shopper experience.

Some examples of restricted product categories and keywords are:

• Offensive, profane, or vulgar keywords or products.
• Prescription medicine keywords or products, such as "Lipitor" or "prednisone".
• Products, and keywords of products that we do not advertise, such as e-cigarettes or sexually explicit and adult products.

3.7 Promotional and messaging

The use of promotional messaging must comply with the following requirements:

• We prohibit the use of superlatives such as “Huge Savings” or “Gigantic Discounts.”
• The start and end dates of your ad campaign must reflect the duration of the offer or the saving period so that ads do not run on dates when the offer or the saving do not apply.
• Campaigns must be scheduled to end on the last day of the promotion.
• Campaign dates for a specific holiday or seasonal event (for example, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Christmas) must start within a reasonable time frame leading up to the event and must end within 24hrs after the event date, or a reasonable time after that depending on the event.
• If you extend the campaign after the offer or the saving period ends, you must modify your ad copy by removing the promotional messaging that no longer applies.

4. Product acceptability

In this section, we list those products that are ineligible for advertising, as well as those restrictions that apply to the format or method of promotion of products that are eligible for advertising. These policies apply to all ads unless we indicate otherwise.

4.1 General requirements

As the advertiser, you can only promote those products that you either own or that you are authorized to resell or distribute.

Your ads must be truthful and accurate. In creating your ads, please ensure that you accurately describe the product(s) advertised.

4.2 Prohibited products

The following products are prohibited globally.

Review section 4.3 below for additional requirements that apply to permitted product categories.

• Adult products, such as pornography, sexually explicit products, toys and entertainment, products claiming to enhance sex, and other products and services of similar nature, including products that are promoted for adult or sexual purposes.
• Beauty and Personal Care: products that claim to permanently physically change natural body properties are prohibited.
• Competitions and sweepstakes.
• Drug testing kits.
• Disease diagnostic kits.
• Digital and computer hacking services and products.
• Etching creams, and other caustic creams, gels, liquids, or solutions.
• False document services.
• Fat burners or similar products that claim to increase metabolism, enhance libido, suppress appetite, or expedite other natural bodily functions.
• Food and supplements that contain ephedrine alkaloids, Salvia divinorum, or salvinorin A.
• Get-rich-quick products.
• Gender prediction kits and similar test products.
• Graffiti-related paints, markers, creams, nozzles, refills, and "how-to" videos and other content.
• Illicit and recreational drugs and drug-related paraphernalia.
• Medical devices intended or marketed for professional use.
• Nitrous oxide canisters and chargers.
• Non-metal outdoor hunting and camping knives
• Oils, supplements, cosmetic beauty products or ingestible products that contain cannabidiol (CBD), THC or otherwise related to cannabis.
• Paternity tests, infidelity tests, or sexual assault test kits.
• Prescription drugs and devices.
• Products that do not comply with North Idaho Exclusive’s Category, Product, and Listing Restrictions.
• Products that claim to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent any disease or addiction.
• Products that improperly claim to be "FDA Cleared," "FDA approved" or products that include the FDA logo in associated images.
• Products designed to be used for privacy invasion, such as spy cameras, or to evade law enforcement such as a police radio scanner.
• Products intended to disguise other products whose purpose is prohibited by law, regulations or our policies such as disguised products intended for the covert transportation of illegal drugs.
• Products that could be used for questionable or potentially dangerous activities.
• Products related to gambling services.
• Products that may infringe, encourage, or enable, the infringement of intellectual property or personal rights.
• Sodium Nitrate
• Tattoo and body branding products.
• Tobacco, e-cigarettes, vapes and related accessories such as tobacco grinders, cigarette papers and cases, e-liquids, hookah accessories and ashtrays
• UV tanning services and equipment.
• Weapons:Ammunition or reloaded ammunition.Assault weapon parts or accessories or products marketed as assault weapon parts or accessories, including reference to various assault weapon models.Destructive and explosive devices such as fireworks.Handgun safety certificates.Pistol, Revolver, or any form of firearm.Products that resemble or include realistic or actual weapons, weapon parts or ammunition.Weapons or other items intended solely for law enforcement or military use.

4.3 Restricted products

The following products are eligible for advertising provided ads comply with the restrictions listed below.

4.3.1 Alcohol and alcohol related products

This policy applies to ads promoting alcoholic drinks (wine, beer and spirits) and alcohol-related merchandise.

Alcohol ads are prohibited in Idaho. Please see the sections below for requirements that apply to alcohol ads in permitted locales.

Please note that this policy does not cover alcohol content featured in non-alcohol ads (for example, a film trailer starring actors consuming alcohol). As per the Prohibited Content policy, ad content must not encourage, glamorize or depict excessive consumption of alcohol.

Sponsored Products
United States: We only permit ads for non-alcohol merchandise if the advertiser is not an alcohol manufacturer or distributor.

Sponsored Brands video
United States: We only permit ads for non-alcoholic beverages and alcohol merchandise if the advertiser and/or its parent company do not hold a license to produce or distribute alcoholic beverages.

4.3.2 Art and Industrial supplies

We permit ads for art and industrial supplies that are intended and marketed only for home, industrial, automobile, or art related uses. Per our prohibited content policies above, ads must not encourage or promote defacing of public or private property, vandalism, or anti-social behaviors.

4.3.3 Beauty products

Ads for beauty products must not:

• Ask questions of, or speak directly to the customer, such as the use of "you/your" (for example, “Embarrassed about the way you look? Then try this”).
• Claim to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent a disease or addiction.
• Directly reference private, intimate, or sensitive bodily conditions.
• Use unsupported or exaggerated claims, or create unrealistic expectations regarding the effectiveness of the product. This includes the presentation of before and after images or videos that are related to body image or intimate and personal products.

Additional Notes:
Before and after images are permitted for non-sensitive products if they follow the above policy.

Keywords must not include terms alluding to whitening of skin tone or similar terms.

Beauty products that claim to have a physiological effect on the body need to have supporting evidence on the product packaging.

4.3.4 Home-test kits

We permit ads for home-test kits products that provide ancestry and high-level health-related information but do not claim to diagnose, treat, or assess the risks of a disease, condition or ailment. You may only promote products that comply with applicable local regulations in all the locale(s) where your ads will show. You are responsible for obtaining all necessary authorizations or approvals from local regulatory authorities for the sale, distribution or advertisement of the products that you intend to advertise with North Idaho Exclusive, as applicable.

Permitted products include, but are not limited to, diabetes and blood sugar monitoring kits, blood pressure monitors, ancestral, DNA, personal genetic profiling kits, urinalysis kits, lancing devices (medical only), and pregnancy tests. These product categories are subject to locale-specific requirements. Please see below for more information.

4.3.5 Infant and baby products

Ads for infant and follow-on formula must not contain messaging that discourage breastfeeding or that claim that the product can be a substitute for breastfeeding.

Infant formula is defined as formula intended for infants between 0 and 6 months in the United States.

Follow on formula is defined as formula intended for infants between 6 and 12 months in the United States.

We permit ads for infant and follow-on formula for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands.

4.3.6 Knives

We prohibit knives whose primary purpose is, or marketed in a way that claims they are, for combat or military use, self-defense or to encourage violent behavior. For example, zombie knives, bowie knives, combat knives, assault knives, throwing knives, daggers, boot knives, spring assisted knives, hand to hand or fighting knives, gravity knives, bayonets, swords, self-defense knives or ninja stars.

4.3.7 Pharmaceuticals and healthcare - over-the-counter (OTC), supplements and medical devices

Ads for health and wellness products, such as over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and supplements and medical products and devices must not:

• Claim to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat or prevent a disease, condition or addiction.
• Contain before and after images or videos.
• Discourage customers from visits to a qualified medical professional.
• Make unrealistic or unrelated claims as to the efficacy of the product.

In addition:

• Ads for OTC drugs and supplements (including vitamin ads) must not claim that non-prescription drugs are as effective as prescription drugs
• Ads for air-purifying or particulate-filtering respirators, also known as respirators or PPE face masks, must comply with and indicate the industry-approved designation that exactly matches the promoted product.
• Ads for non-respirator face masks, surgical masks and cloth masks are permitted except when they contain misleading or false claims (such as alphanumeric designations outside of approved standards).
• Drugs and supplements intended for pets must be clearly identified.
• Products that improperly claim to be ‘FDA Cleared’, ‘FDA approved’ or products that include the FDA logo in associated images are not permitted.

4.3.8 Religious products

The keywords selected for products that are specific to a religion or faith must be strictly related to the religion associated with the product promoted, or to religion in general.

Product targeting must be related to the religion associated with the product promoted.

4.3.9 Sexual wellness

We permit the promotion of sexual wellness products on Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, provided the ads comply with the following requirements:

• Ads must focus on the medical properties of the product (such as birth prevention, or to prevent diseases, or general branding).
• Ads must comply with the “Prohibited Content” policies above.
• Ads must not contain claims related to increased sexual performance or libido boosting.
• Ads must not explicitly reference private, intimate or sensitive physical/medical conditions nor sensitive bodily functions or conditions.
• Ads must not target unrelated products.Keywords must be strictly related to the product or the brand promoted.

4.3.10 Sports and outdoor products

Ads for sports and outdoor products must not:

• Condone or encourage violent or anti-social behavior.
• Encourage customers to be less watchful or responsible for their health and safety.
• Mislead customers, including by presenting as safe products that are generally deemed to be unsafe without proper care and precaution.

4.3.11 Used and Renewed Products

We permit ads for refurbished products, provided the headline ad copy or custom text states clearly that the product is reconditioned, refurbished, renewed, used, second-hand etc.

Refurbished products must not be mixed with non-refurbished products.