There are possibly some obvious and unique heuristics. For example, the FEC requires that broadcast commercials must either an explicit audio statement of who authorized the commercial:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fec.gov&#x2F;pages&#x2F;brochures&#x2F;notices.shtml#appearance" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fec.gov&#x2F;pages&#x2F;brochures&#x2F;notices.shtml#appearance</a><p>e.g.<p>&quot;I&#x27;m Ted Cruz and I approve this message&quot;<p>&quot;This message paid for by the Americans for A Better Tomorrow Tomorrow&quot;<p>There are very, very few non-political commercials that have this kind of phrasing.<p>edit: I&#x27;m only referring to how political commercials are different from non-political commercials. Obviously, the above heuristic has not much value in determining whether a particular ad is the same one as one already recorded and identified by the Archive.