Kensington, MD, June 20, 2006 Psoriasis Cure Now, a nonprofit patient advocacy group, today asked internet search giant Google to enforce its own corporate policy against accepting advertisements that promote phony cures for incurable diseases. Google is currently running numerous paid ads designed to deceive people with psoriasis, a painful, incurable and often debilitating immune system disease that affects as many as 7.5 million Americans.“The Google brand stands for integrity and credibility,” said Michael Paranzino, president of Psoriasis Cure Now, “which is why we have asked Google to enforce its own sensible policy prohibiting ads for phony medical ‘cures.’ People with painful, incurable diseases are particularly vulnerable to scam artists seeking to prey on their misfortune. We hope Google will enforce its policy to protect its users from false and potentially unhealthy advertising.”
Google’s content policy clearly states: “Advertising is not permitted for the promotion of miracle cures, such as 'Cure cancer overnight!'” [https://adwords.google.com/select/contentpolicy.html] Yet as of yesterday, nine (9) different paid ads alongside search results for the word “psoriasis” made just that kind of bogus claim, including: “Psoriasis Can Be Cured”; “New Psoriasis Cure”; “eradicate your psoriasis in 2-3 days”; and “treatment guaranteed to end Psoriasis”.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for psoriasis. In fact, scientists believe a dozen or more different genes may play a role in this complex disease, along with environmental triggers that make psoriasis even more difficult to treat.
Google competitor Yahoo! is not running any psoriasis advertisements that make obviously false claims. “We applaud Yahoo! for its practice and look forward to Google enforcing its policy to protect both its users and its corporate image,” Paranzino added.
For more on psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, visit the Psoriasis Cure Now website at http://www.psorcurenow.org .
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