Google Ads says an AI label cannot excuse a fake public figure

Google calls the change a clarification. Enforcement stays as it was, its update page says; the new wording is there to help advertisers read the policy. Search Engine Roundtable spotted the new note on Thursday 12 November 2026 and pointed out the tension it settles: Google asks advertisers to disclose AI elsewhere, and here disclosure changes nothing.

The rule sits beside the AI labels Google already requires on some ads, which our guide to AI ad disclosure rules tracks platform by platform; that page now carries the new line.

Our rights sheet reads the same question from the tool side. Of the 80 AI ad tools whose terms we rated on putting another person’s face or voice into content (rows checked between 24 September and 12 November 2026), 62 allow it only with that person’s consent or rights, Amazon’s Video Generator does not allow it, and 17 leave it unclear or vary by plan (our rights data).

So a tool’s consent clause and Google’s ad rule are two separate gates: clearing a tool’s terms leaves Google’s ban on ads that impersonate a public figure in force, and an AI label clears neither.