Purported Pastor Adeboye’s social media ad on prostatitis fake, ARCON warns Nigerians

The apex regulatory body in the nation’s advertising sector, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has warned on the series of advertisements being run on facebook, especially the one showing the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, advertising cure for prostatitis (prostate cancer) for Dr. Zayo Mokoena.

Describing the adverts as fake and unethical, the Council, in a statement issued over the weekend by its Director General, Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, also expressed disgust that the image and voice of ace Channels Broadcaster, Mr. Seun Okinbaloye are being used to advertise erectile dysfunction for Professor Kingsley Ekwueme, while the Nigeria Customs Service’s impounded cars and bags of rice are being used in various advertisements on the platform to deceive unsuspecting public.

It stated that preliminary investigations carried out by the council had revealed that both Pastor Adeboye and Mr. Okinbaloye’s advertisements were computer/AI-generated, with the images and voices used with the intention of misleading the public. It also described the Nigerian Customs Services’ advertisement as a scam, meant to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians.

“ARCON will take all necessary steps, including legal actions to sanction platform owners, advertisers and advertisement agencies that engage in the exposure of unethical advertisements.

“A special monitoring and enforcement task force has been mandated to track advertisements across all platforms, swiftly identify and flag non-compliant advertisements,” it stated.

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