Have you read in the newspapers lately that a new law is about to be formulated for brand ambassadors being responsible for the brands they endorse? Yes, that is in the pipeline. Celebrities who endorse products and services through ads will be hauled up if the ads are misleading, or the products or services are deceiving people. Brand ambassadors can no longer shrug off responsibility saying that they were only doing their job.
Something similar is happening to Google’s Ad policies. Google Ads are going to take steps against misleading, often unscrupulous medical ads posted on their pages. These medical ads are related to fields like stem cell therapy, gene therapy or cellular non stem therapy. These are fields where ads are often placed without any proven scientific basis of the treatment advertised.
If the medical ad does not have any sufficient clinical proof about its genuineness, it will be removed from Google. Even for ads which have a certain degree of scientific backup, the lack of tested material can lead to an ad being pulled out. Google has put out a statement saying that such ads
‘take advantage of individuals by offering untested, deceptive treatments. Often times, these treatments can lead to dangerous health outcomes and we feel they have no place on our platforms’.
The move got immediate support from experts who have long voiced their concerns about misleading medical ads. Among the first ones to support this policy was the International Society for Stem Cell Research. It said that this policy was ‘a much-needed and welcome step to curb the marketing of unscrupulous medical products’.
However, for genuine products that show ample proof of research and testing can still go ahead and put out their ads on Google. This policy will continue as of now, till new developments or updates come to light.
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