AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has slammed the Seven Network as exploitative for the way it has promoted Ben Cousins' controversial documentary.

Seven is set to screen Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins, the tell-all tale of the Brownlow medallist's descent into drug addiction, before the AFL season concludes.

The network has already begun promoting the documentary.

But Demetriou said on Friday the AFL had lodged a complaint with one of its broadcasters over the way Seven had stirred interest.

"I'm just disappointed with the way it's been promoted," Demetriou told Fairfax Radio.

"The Seven Network has been pretty ordinary the way they've put it up on their ads in Packed to the Rafters, which is a family program.

"They certainly did that without our knowledge. They were supposed to work with us in the way that it was going to be promoted.

"I found that pretty distasteful.

"We have (complained), but they're all about ratings and exploitation, so I was pretty disappointed."

One of Seven's promotions starts with the former West Coast star and now Richmond player looking at the camera and saying "I'm Ben Cousins and I'm a drug addict".

Demetriou described the documentary as confronting, but worth watching.

"It's certainly a documentary worth seeing, particularly for families, because the story of this documentary is about a young man who becomes an addict, who goes through some very terrible times and then with the support of family and a structure around football, he comes out of it at the other end," he said.

"It's at times confronting, but I think in the end there's some real positives that can come out of it.

"I would encourage people to watch it."

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