A three-month-old fake ad on Facebook (FB) used the names and videos of cardiologist Willie Ong and his physician wife Liza Ramoso-Ong to promote an unregistered collagen cream.
This is the third fake ad associated with the Ongs that VERA Files Fact Check debunked in barely two weeks into the new year.
“Same as before, all fake. All other pages with ads are fake,” Ong said in a Jan. 8 Viber message to VERA Files Fact Check.
(Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Liza Ong NOT endorsing unregistered prostate cream)
Beautify Collagen Cream – also named Disaar Collagen Cream in the ad – is not in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) list of registered cosmetic products.
The FDA released an advisory last June 2023 warning people against purchasing and using Disaar Collagen Cream as it “may pose health risks to consumers.”
The fake ad inserted the following clips of the couple from their official YouTube channel Doc Willie Ong, but neither Ong nor his wife promoted collagen creams in the videos.
- A video of Ong talking about the anti-aging properties of collagen, uploaded on May 17, 2023; and
- A video of Ramoso-Ong discussing food-based sources of collagen, uploaded on Nov. 2, 2023.
Uploaded on Sept. 27, 2023 by FB page Cosmetic Lounge (created on Aug. 4, 2023), the fake ad has garnered a total of 32,000 reactions, 26,000 comments, and 2.4 million views.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
