# AI in marketing and sales: honest ads, real reviews and lawful outreach

*The advertising rules apply however the ad was made. What that means for images, claims, reviews and messages.*

## Production summary

- Modules to record: 2
- Total script: 800 words, about 5 minutes of finished audio
- Voices: Emma (host) and George (practice educator)
- Level: Marketers, sales staff, social media managers, agency staff and small business owners

## Accreditation wording that must appear in the description

- **The CPD Certification Service** (planned): Application scheduled.
- **Advertising Standards Authority and the CAP Code** (aligned): Written against the ASA's published guidance on AI in advertising and the CAP Code. Our own mapping, with no endorsement from the ASA or CAP implied.
- **Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024** (aligned): The reviews material is written against the Act's unfair commercial practices provisions, in force from 6 April 2025. Our own summary, which is not legal advice.

> Do not upgrade any of these words in a description or a thumbnail. Aligned is not accredited, and planned is not approved.


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## Honest ads, however they are made

**Runtime** about 3 minutes. **Words** 391. **Starts at** 00:00 in the full course recording.

### Learning outcomes to state on camera

- State that the advertising codes apply to AI generated ads
- Apply the ASA's disclosure test
- Explain why disclosure does not rescue a misleading claim
- Recognise a misleading AI image
- Say who is responsible for the ad

### Script


`[CUE 1]` *An AI generated advert passing through the same four tests as any other: legal, decent, honest, truthful*

**EMMA**  [00:00]
George, I generate half our ad images with AI now. Are there rules about that?

**GEORGE**  [00:06]
No AI rules, and that's the point. The Advertising Standards Authority enforces the CAP Code, which covers your website and social media too. It has no AI specific rules, because the existing ones apply however the content was made.

**EMMA**  [00:21]
So what applies?

**GEORGE**  [00:22]
Everything that always did. Legal, decent, honest and truthful. Don't materially mislead. Be able to substantiate your claims. The same rules in the same way.


`[CUE 2]` *Two cases side by side: an AI influencer that needs disclosing and a true sentence that does not*

**EMMA**  [00:32]
Do I have to label AI images?

**GEORGE**  [00:35]
There's no blanket rule. The ASA suggests a question. Is the audience likely to be misled if the use of AI isn't disclosed?

**EMMA**  [00:44]
Give me a yes and a no.

**GEORGE**  [00:47]
A yes. Your influencer is AI generated and people think she's real. Saying so removes a misleading impression. A no. AI helped write a sentence of copy that's true. Nobody's misled.


`[CUE 3]` *A cosmetic before and after image with a made with AI label, still marked misleading*

**EMMA**  [00:59]
So if I'm worried, I just add a label.

**GEORGE**  [01:03]
That's the mistake. The ASA says disclosure alone is very unlikely to fix a fundamentally misleading message. You can't make a misleading claim and then disclaim it by saying AI was used.

**EMMA**  [01:16]
Example?

**GEORGE**  [01:16]
Their own. A cosmetic product. An AI image showing an effect that doesn't reflect real results is likely to be materially misleading. A line saying made with AI doesn't rescue it.


`[CUE 4]` *A real person's face on an advert with no permission, and an invented customer quote*

**EMMA**  [01:29]
We sell holiday lets. I've been brightening the rooms.

**GEORGE**  [01:32]
Brightening is one thing. A room that's larger than the real one is another. If the picture shows what the product is, it has to be what the product is. A label doesn't change that.

**EMMA**  [01:46]
What about putting a celebrity's face on it?

**GEORGE**  [01:50]
A real person's face or voice, without permission, suggesting they endorse you. That breaks the rules on endorsements and may breach other law too. And an invented customer with an invented quote is a fake testimonial, however lifelike.


`[CUE 5]` *An advertiser, an agency and a tool, with the responsibility arrow pointing at the advertiser*

**EMMA**  [02:05]
If my agency makes it, is it their problem?

**GEORGE**  [02:08]
Yours. The advertiser is responsible. It doesn't matter that an agency made it, a tool generated it, or a platform assembled the wording automatically. If it appears as your marketing, the ASA asks you to substantiate it.

**EMMA**  [02:23]
Give me one check I can do every time.

**GEORGE**  [02:27]
Ask one person who didn't make it. What does this tell you about the product? Then check that what they say is true.

### Sources for the on screen credit

- Disclosure of AI in advertising: striking the balance between creativity and responsibility, Advertising Standards Authority
- AI and deepfakes: four things advertisers need to know before they hit run, Advertising Standards Authority
- Generative AI and advertising: decoding AI regulation, Advertising Standards Authority
- The CAP Code: non-broadcast advertising and direct and promotional marketing, Committee of Advertising Practice

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## Reviews, outreach and chatbots

**Runtime** about 3 minutes. **Words** 409. **Starts at** 02:36 in the full course recording.

### Learning outcomes to state on camera

- State the law on fake and incentivised reviews
- Explain the business's duty to prevent fake reviews
- Apply the consent rules to electronic marketing
- Say what a customer must be told about a chatbot
- Keep personal data out of unapproved tools

### Script


`[CUE 1]` *Fifty generated five star reviews crossed out, with the date 6 April 2025*

**EMMA**  [02:36]
George, a supplier offered to generate fifty five star reviews for our new product. Tempting. Legal?

**GEORGE**  [02:42]
No. Since 6 April 2025, under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, it's a banned practice to submit or commission fake consumer reviews. In all circumstances.

**EMMA**  [02:53]
What counts as fake?

**GEORGE**  [02:55]
A review written by a tool for a customer who doesn't exist, or who never said it. And a real review rewritten to be more favourable than what the customer wrote.


`[CUE 2]` *A review page hiding its one star reviews, and an AI summary leaving them out*

**EMMA**  [03:07]
What about incentives? We give a discount for a review.

**GEORGE**  [03:11]
Allowed, but it must be clearly identified as incentivised. And you can't publish reviews in a misleading way.

**EMMA**  [03:18]
Meaning?

**GEORGE**  [03:19]
Hiding the bad ones. Or an AI summary of your reviews that leaves them out. That presents review information in a misleading way.


`[CUE 3]` *A business checking that a reviewer was a customer, with a report button*

**EMMA**  [03:28]
And the penalty?

**GEORGE**  [03:29]
The Competition and Markets Authority can now decide for itself that consumer law's been broken, and fine a business up to ten per cent of its global annual turnover. Without going to court.

**EMMA**  [03:42]
That's serious. Is not writing them enough?

**GEORGE**  [03:45]
No. If you publish reviews, you're expected to take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent fake ones and remove them when found. A policy. A way to check a reviewer was a customer. A way to report a suspect review.


`[CUE 4]` *A bought list being personalised by a tool, stopped at a consent gate*

**EMMA**  [04:01]
Different subject. I've got a tool that writes a personalised email to every lead on a list I bought.

**GEORGE**  [04:09]
AI can write the message. It can't give you permission to send it. Email and text marketing to individuals needs their consent, with a narrow exception for your own existing customers.

**EMMA**  [04:21]
But it's personalised.

**GEORGE**  [04:22]
Which makes it worse, not better. Personalisation uses personal data. And a bought list personalised by a tool is still an unlawful campaign.


`[CUE 5]` *A chatbot with a human name and photo, relabelled clearly as an AI assistant with a route to a person*

**EMMA**  [04:32]
Who enforces that?

**GEORGE**  [04:33]
The Information Commissioner's Office. And the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 raised the maximum fines to the same level as data protection law.

**EMMA**  [04:42]
Last one. Our website chatbot has a name and a photo. People think it's a person.

**GEORGE**  [04:49]
Then fix that. Presenting an automated system as a human being is misleading. And if you serve customers in the EU, the AI Act has required since 2 August 2026 that people are told they're dealing with an AI system.

**EMMA**  [05:05]
And if it gets a refund policy wrong?

**GEORGE**  [05:08]
Then you told the customer that. A chatbot speaks for the business. Test what it says, keep a record, and give people an easy route to a human being.

### Sources for the on screen credit

- Fake reviews: CMA guidance on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Competition and Markets Authority
- Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, legislation.gov.uk
- Guide to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations: electronic mail marketing, Information Commissioner's Office
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Artificial Intelligence Act), Article 50, EUR-Lex

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