Issue ads: captions and plates, not synthetic victims

Do not generate the harmed person. An issue ad that ships is a still you can defend — a bill text, an empty corridor, a chart, a sign on a lawn — then type you wrote, or speech a real, cleared human actually said. A photoreal "mother who lost everything" is a private person you invented, or worse, one you referenced. That is not empathy. It is a likeness problem wearing a cause.

A deepfake of a private person is not a style. TikTok's private-figure line is permission, not labelling. A labelled synthetic victim is still a replica of a person who did not grant the use — or of nobody, presented as somebody, which is a different lie. The fake-review rule is the adjacent door: a constructed person speaking as if they were harmed or saved is fabricated proof.

This is general information, not legal advice. The production rule does not wait on a lawyer: do not generate the victim.

Harm is not a casting call

Private means not a public figure. A constituent. A patient. A worker. A "typical family" who is still a face. A lookalike pulled off a news still "for realism." If a reasonable person who knows them would say "that is them," you have a replica. If nobody knows them because they do not exist, you still cannot put words in their mouth as testimony.

Do not prompt "an exhausted parent in a hospital hallway." Do not upload a staff photo as a style reference. A replica grant has to say generation; a shoot release does not. The release that covers generation is the clause list. Most issue briefs should not generate people at all.

Minors in harm stories are a hard stop. No generated likeness of anyone under 18. Do not "age them up." Public figures are a different ban list — not a hole you route a private victim through.

Captions on a plate you own

The honest object is the plate: a photograph of a document, a building, a street with no recognisable private face, a graphic you typeset. That still is the contract. Motion, if any, is a slow push on that file. Do not restage a crying extra around it.

Copy is type, not a generate. The one sentence the ad is allowed to claim — the bill number, the date, the ask — belongs in words you can edit without regenerating a face.

• Speech you already recorded from a cleared human: add captions to a video. Versely transcribes the spoken audio and burns styled, word-timed subtitles. It transcribes; it does not invent a victim's confession.
• A line nobody said out loud: a text overlay — one authored hook or CTA, burned in. Do not ask a video model to typeset a statute.

If there is no cleared mouth, there is no caption job. There is overlay on a plate. License plates, name badges, and mailbox numbers in a still are identity too. Crop them or shoot again.

Testimony requires a real mouth

Ship the plate as it is, a named human who consented, an invented diagram with no photoreal body, and captions or overlays you wrote. Do not ship a generated victim, a "typical constituent," a lookalike of a journalist, or a synthetic testimonial about harm. Minors stay out.

If the brief is "make them feel it," the feeling you want is a true document and a sentence you will stand behind. It does not look like a stranger crying in 9:16.

FAQ

If we label the video AI-generated, can we still show a fictional victim?

A label tells viewers the media is synthetic. It does not create a grant from a private person, and it does not turn fabricated testimony into a case study. Leave the victim out. Show the plate. Caption the claim.

Can we generate a silhouette or a hooded figure instead?

A photoreal private figure is the same class of mistake with the lights down. Stick to diagrams, documents, and people you filmed. A hooded extra is also how serious viewers discount the ad.

Should we caption a generated voiceover as if it were a survivor?

No. Add captions transcribes speech that is already on the file. It does not make invented testimony true. Record a cleared speaker, or overlay copy you will stand behind.

Who can talk in an issue ad?

A real, named person whose copy is cleared, or no one. Overlay the ask. Do not hire a generated victim to explain the blast radius.