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Gov. Code, § 84504.5 · Article 5. Disclosure in Advertisements

Gov. Code, § 84504.5

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

An advertisement that is an independent expenditure and paid for by a political party or a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office of the controlling candidate shall include the disclosures required by Sections 84502, 84506.5, and 84514. An advertisement that supports or opposes a ballot measure and is paid for by a political party or a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office of the controlling candidate shall include the disclosure required by Section 84502. A disclosure that is included in an advertisement pursuant to this section is subject to the following requirements:

(a) A radio or telephone advertisement shall include the required disclosures at the beginning or end of the advertisement and be read in a clearly spoken manner and in a pitch and tone substantially similar to the rest of the advertisement, and shall last no less than three seconds.

(b) A video advertisement, including television and videos disseminated over the internet, shall include the required disclosures in writing at the beginning or end of the advertisement in a text that is of sufficient size to be readily legible to an average viewer and in a color that has a reasonable degree of contrast with the background of the advertisement for at least four seconds. The required disclosure must also be spoken during the advertisement if the written disclosure appears for less than five seconds of a broadcast of 30 seconds or less or for less than 10 seconds of a broadcast that lasts longer than 30 seconds.

(c) (1) A print advertisement shall include the required disclosures in no less than 10-point font and in a color that has a reasonable degree of contrast with the background of the advertisement.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), each line of the required disclosures on a print advertisement that is larger than those designed to be individually distributed, such as a yard sign or billboard, shall in total constitute no less than 5 percent of the total height of the advertisement and shall appear in a color that has a reasonable degree of contrast with the background of the advertisement.

(d) An electronic media advertisement shall include the disclosures required by Section 84504.3.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 260, Sec. 7. (AB 2355) Effective January 1, 2025.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=84504.5.
Text hash
sha256 4494dd9793c493bd835449844209cb0da55b0bfee6938cf6b5a24c06eb80d5cb
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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