Black Friday may have started as a US shopping tradition, but it’s now firmly part of the UK retail calendar. This year it falls on Friday 27th November. But, what was once a single day of discounts has become a much longer promotional period, with many retailers launching offers earlier in November and running campaigns through to Cyber Monday. In fact, according to IMRG, “each year more and more retailers have a live Black Friday campaign running on the 1st working day of November”. For agencies and advertisers, this means that Black Friday isn’t just one high-pressure trading day, but a sustained burst of sales messaging, price comparisons, limited-time offers and “biggest ever” claims competing for viewers’ attention.
And the stakes are significant. According to Adobe Analytics, shoppers spent 3.8 billion pounds online across the four days of Black Friday to Cyber Monday last year. And Barclay’s transaction data showed that Black Friday itself was the busiest retail day of last year, with transactions up 62% versus the average day. So, with such a valuable commercial opportunity at your fingertips, it’s important to get the details right.
Before your ad can air on TV or VOD, our clearance team will check whether its compliant with the BCAP code. If it isn’t then we won’t be able to approve it for air, potentially causing delays in your schedule, or the need for reshoots or re-edits. So, the brands that make sure they get their ads right first time this year will be able to capitalise on the major sales moment of Black Friday, without having to deal with avoidable clearance delays.
That’s why Advertising Trust and Compliance Manager, Nicola Wynter, has put together the ultimate Black Friday ad clearance checklist. These top tips help to keep your ad honest and truthful, by providing total clarity for the viewer so they know what to expect from your deals or promotions. Don’t consider your Black Friday ad script complete without going through this checklist first and making sure your ad doesn’t fall into any common pitfalls we tend to see around this time of year.
✅ Upload the substantiation alongside your script submission
As with any price reduction or offer message, you need to upload a completed Retail Substantiation Form alongside your ad script, during the ad clearance process. This form asks you to break down the specifics of your retail offers, such as start and end dates, before and after prices, ‘up to’ and ‘from’ claims, delivery, availability and more. As price reductions are a legal issue it should be filled out by the advertiser themselves, ensuring that its someone appropriately qualified.
✅ Know the difference between a Black Friday “sale” and “event”
Getting the language right in your ad is essential for viewer clarity, so you need to work out whether your promotion can be called a “sale” or an “event”. A “sale” generally refers to items that are discounted. If your ad doesn’t include any discounted items, but instead features offers such as “free installation” then you can’t call it a “sale” – instead its better to opt for “event”.
✅ Only reference “Black Friday” if the promotion is genuinely a Black Friday one
Many consumers take the opportunity to do a bit more shopping around Black Friday in order to nab the best deals. So, be honest about your promotions to avoid misleading any unsuspecting consumers into thinking an item is only available at a special price during this limited time. This means that if the promotion is already an existing one, you cannot name it a “Black Friday” sale.
✅ Only include products in your ad which are part of the Black Friday deal
When viewers see a Black Friday ad, they expect to be able to purchase any products featured in it at the special Black Friday price. So, avoid confusion and only include products in your ad that are part of your black Friday deal.
✅ Don’t imply the deal only happens on Black Friday if that’s not the case
Most Black Friday promotions last longer than just one day, which isn’t a problem as long as this is made clear to viewers. There should be no implication or indication that the promotion lasts for just one day, by including “Only on Black Friday” audio for example.
✅ Don’t exaggerate your Black Friday sale
If you make a bold claim about the significance of your Black Friday sale, like it being “bigger than ever”, we’ll expect to see substantiation evidencing how this is the case – bigger discounts or more products discounted than previous years, for example.
✅ Keep your audio and visual messages consistent
If your sale is “up to” a certain percentage, make sure that it’s stated in both the audio and any on-screen graphics. You shouldn’t say “up to 50% off” in the audio, but only “50% off” in the graphics, for example, as they’re two different claims so could confuse and mislead the viewer.
✅ Inform viewers how long the Black Friday deal will last
If the promotion or event doesn’t have a set end date, but instead lasts until the products are no longer in stock, then you need to add the super “while stock lasts”, or similar. Otherwise, if the ad is on air within two weeks of the promotion ending, the end date will need to appear in the ad.
✅ Get support this Black Friday
With November fast approaching, it’s worth getting clearance and delivery support lined up, to keep things moving during this key trading period.
Our Creative Consultancy service can work with you to make sure the language and claims in your script are likely to be compliant and sail through clearance.
Clearcast Delivery can get your approved Black Friday ad to broadcasters quickly and smoothly, so tight timelines don’t turn into last-minute headaches.
And if you end up with any last minute Black Friday ads, utilise Fast Track which guarantees feedback in 24 hours, and can even approve clocked ads in 2 hours if they match approved rough cuts. You won’t find a better deal than that!
✅ Check your online Black Friday ads
For Black Friday 2026, expect consumers to spend even more time shopping via their phones. In 2025, over 55% of Black Friday purchases happened on smartphones.
Online ads have to adhere to the CAP code. Although ever so slightly different to the code which we review TV and VOD ads against, its still essential to ensure your black Friday deals and promotions fall in line.
Luckily, we recently launched a brand new tool and service to help with this. iClear is the AI assessment tool built using our decades of compliance knowledge. The tool will analyse your online ad and provide an answer in minutes – outlining any potential code violations or risks. If you’d like a real (human!) compliance expert to assess your ad however, allClear does just this.
Nicola explains “I hope this checklist is helpful with getting your Black Friday ads right! It’s so important to take the time to make sure they are because it’s often a time for more deals, more discounts and more offers – and with this, comes the need for more substantiation and information for us to check through to be able to approve your ad.
This added layer of complexity could add more time or require more back and forth between us and you, so my top tip is always to get your scripts and evidence submitted to us as early as possible, so you’re not rushing to meet your deadlines.
This is just as important with your rough cut videos. If you have quoted prices in the ad alongside general supers (superimposed text on screen, like T&Cs etc) such as sale end dates or delivery conditions, having both on screen at the same time can add time to the required duration of hold. So, get these rough cuts to us nice and early, so we can check and make sure they pass. There’s also our supers duration of hold calculator that you can use to help you work this out.”
By Nicola Wynter, Advertising Trust and Compliance Manager