Children's Advertising Clearance

Ad Standards' Children’s Clearance Committee is charged with the important responsibility of reviewing and approving children’s broadcast advertising messages to ensure compliance with the provisions of The Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children (Children’s Code) All children’s commercials must be approved by the Children’s Committee and carry a valid Ad Standards approval number prior to broadcast.

The Children's Code, published by Ad Standards, was developed to guide advertisers and advertising agencies to prepare commercial messages that recognize and respect the special characteristics of the children’s audience. The Children's Code is endorsed by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

The Children’s Clearance Committee includes industry and public representatives, meets every other week to review and approve finished commercials. Each approved commercial is assigned a nine-character or six-digit approval number, valid for one year. This number signifies to broadcasters that the commercial has been approved.

Ad Standards Clearance Services has expanded its clearance service to include the review of non-broadcast child-directed advertising. Introduced in 2007, this voluntary review has been designed to help you ensure that child-directed advertising in non-broadcast media complies with the provisions of Interpretation Guideline #2 (Advertising to Children) under Clause 12 of The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.

For more information about submitting your broadcast and non-broadcast advertising copy to the Children’s Committee for review, click here.