Celebrities in creatives: how to get personalities approved before launch and avoid burning your budget

When preparing a launch, most of the attention usually goes to the offer, creatives, traffic source and GEO. But there’s a factor that can kill a campaign before the first leads come in — the personality you use in your ads.

In the affiliate community, such people are called celebrities (celebs): well-known figures in a specific GEO — doctors, TV hosts, bloggers, actors, showmen. In nutra they work on trust: a familiar face on a prelander boosts CTR and conversion, especially in the COD format, where the order decision is made quickly.

The problem is that far from every personality can be used — and “allowed yesterday” doesn’t mean “allowed today”.

Where personality bans come from

Every advertiser has a stop list — a list of personalities who are prohibited from being used in ads for the offer. The reasons for a ban are almost always practical:

• image rights. The personality or their representatives filed a complaint or a lawsuit — the advertiser closes usage to avoid getting sued themselves;
• country regulations. In some GEOs, doctors and officials in advertising are acceptable, in others it’s a direct legal ban. What works fine in Asia can end in a fine for the advertiser in Europe;
• scandals and news background. A personality “burns out” in a single day: a high-profile story — and the face in the ad starts working against the product;
• an overheated personality. If every team on the market uses the same celebrity, they attract the attention of regulators and ad platforms, while audience trust drops;
• the advertiser’s bad experience. Sometimes a restriction appears after a specific incident — complaints, returns, claims from past launches.

That’s why stop lists are not universal: every advertiser has their own list, and it differs across offers and GEOs.

What a launch with an unapproved personality costs you

The scenario is almost always the same: the materials are ready, the campaign is launched, traffic is flowing — and then it turns out the personality is banned.

From there, it escalates:

• the advertiser rejects leads from such creatives — the budget is burned, no payout;
• the stream is disabled until the materials are replaced;
• ready-made prelanders and videos go to the trash, production starts over;
• in serious cases — claims from the advertiser and risk to your account.

This check is cheapest before launch. Most expensive — after.

Why you can’t rely on yesterday’s lists

Stop lists are living documents. An advertiser can add a personality after a lawsuit, a scandal or a change in internal rules — and this doesn’t always come with a newsletter to partners.

It also works the other way: a personality leaves the stop list and can be used again.

The practical takeaway: a list you received a month ago needs to be re-checked. Especially when relaunching a campaign, scaling to a new GEO or moving a funnel to another offer.

How we simplify this work at Shakes

We gradually collect stop lists and approved celebrity lists from advertisers for specific offers and GEOs.

Where a sufficient volume of launches has been accumulated and the advertiser is ready to work proactively, pre-approval applies: the list of personalities that can be used is known before production. For certain offers for Bangladesh, this practice is already in place; for other directions we’re building out the process.

This doesn’t cancel approval in each specific case, but it noticeably shortens the revision cycles: instead of “launched — returned — redone”, you know the boundaries in advance.

Pre-launch checklist

1. Ask your manager for the current list of banned personalities for the offer and GEO — before creative production, not after.
2. If a personality is not on the approved list — get them approved separately and wait for confirmation.
3. Re-check the list when relaunching a campaign and scaling.
4. Don’t move celebrities between GEOs and offers without checking — restrictions are not inherited.
5. If a personality has surfaced in a news scandal — play it safe and clarify their status, even if they’re formally not on the stop list.

Conclusion

Celebrities in nutra are a working trust tool — but only as long as the personality is approved. An unapproved personality turns a strong creative into a cause of rejected leads and missed deadlines.

So the rule is simple: first the list of restrictions, then production. Message your manager — they’ll send you the current restrictions for your offer and GEO and tell you which personalities are already approved.