Ad agencies, public-relations firms, and anybody using photographs to promote products or services in the US should be aware of the requirements of the Department of Defense concerning advertising. These regulations are, DoD tells me, essentially laws and violating them could result in a problem with government attorneys. That doesn't seem to happen very often, though, because DoD seldom seems interested in enforcing the regs, at least at the present time.
If you're an advertiser, DoD does not permit you to suggest in any way that the US government endorses your product or service. In practical terms, that means that you are not allowed to show a photo with a person or object that are clearly part of the US armed forces. You can show an F-15 aircraft, for example, because many nations use the F-15 -- but you can't show USAF markings on the aircraft in the photo. All that's required to comply with the regs is to Photoshop out the markings. The same sort of thing applies to "bumper" markings on vehicles, branch and unit insignia on uniforms, and anything else in a photo that is unique to the US armed forces.
Another part of the regs relates to the people appearing in the photos. According to DoD, they are not supposed to be on active duty. That's not easy to establish just by looking at a photo, most of the time, but DoD prefers advertising photos use actors wearing "sterile" uniforms -- clothing without any patches or insignia at all.
But magazines and other publications are full of ads that violate these regulations. The reason seems to be that enforcement is a very low priority and that violaters will never hear from DoD's lawyers. More on that in another post.
I'll write about this again. It's a big topic and if DoD ever gets serious about enforcing the rules, a lot of advertisers will need to change the way they illustrate their ads.
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