'Dr. Oz' Fights Illegal Online Marketing In New Campaign

Dr.-Oz-ASony Pictures Television's daytime syndicated TV show "Dr. Oz" is doing a rare on-air campaign to fight copyright infringement as it relates to illegal marketing and merchandising.

The show, hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz, which focuses on health and medical issues, says the campaign is to protect viewers "from rogue vitamin and supplement company marketing campaigns that illegally use the Dr. Oz name."

"Dr. Oz" says that over the past several years, there have been many banner ads featuring Dr. Oz endorsements on the Internet, through sites like Facebook, Google, Amazon and YouTube. There have also been e-mail spamming, targeted ads and robo-calling.

The campaign starts on Monday, May 6. At the end of each show, an on-air disclaimer will read:

advertisement

advertisement

"If you receive an e-mail or any kind of direct marketing claiming to be from me selling a product with my name, my image or the show's name, you need to know IT'S NOT ME! I consider anyone that uses my name or my picture to try to sell you a product or supplement reckless and dangerous."

It goes on: "They are undermining my credibility with you and the trust you place in me. More importantly, it could be dangerous to your health. Please go to doctoroz.com/oz-watch to report if you receive any messages that use me to sell you anything. To see a list of our trusted partners, please go to Dr. Oz.com."

Dr. Mehmet Oz states: "Anything you see on this show is part of a conversation I am having with you about your health. We are always transparent about our trusted, official partnerships and a full list of these partners is available on our Web site."

The show didn't list those companies it believes is violating their copyright. But so far, "Dr. Oz" says over 11,000 complaints have been logged through the OzWatch on doctoroz.com.

Next story loading loading..