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Reprint from Mashable.com: August 21st, 2009 | by Adam Ostrow

Banner ads that include celebrities are nothing new, and a common tactic used by marketers to improve click-thru rates. However, in most cases, the celebrities being featured aren’t actually being paid for the endorsement.

Oprah has decided to do something about it, and along with Dr. Oz and The Illinois State Attorney General’s Office have filed a lawsuit against more than 50 different marketers who have used their images without permission.

We caught wind of the suit by way of an email from Azoogle, a big online affiliate ad network, who sent a message to its members warning them about this practice in light of the suit:

“The Illinois State AG has filed actions against three parties for deceptive advertising practices in the marketing of acai berry products and other dietary supplements. Please keep in mind that the regulators are choosing to directly pursue affiliate marketers for their marketing practices. The full text of the press release can be found here.

Dr. Oz and Oprah Winfrey have also filed a lawsuit in New York for copyright and trademark infringement against approximately 50 companies, including advertisers, suppliers, ad networks, and affiliates. To put it bluntly, they are very unhappy of their celebrity status being used to market dietary supplements and cosmetics, without their permission. They have specifically listed hundreds of affiliate sites they want discontinued immediately, because the URLs use their name or the sites claim endorsements from Oprah/Dr. Oz. The full story can be found here.”

It’s hard not to be on Oprah’s side of this issue. The ads – like the one featured above – are clearly not for products and brands that Oprah would want her name affiliated with. That said, ads like these are everywhere. It will be interesting to see if the Oprah suit leads other public figures to aggressively go after those that use their image in online ads without permission.

OK, if we all have learned anything from Oprah over the last umpteen many years it’s that it is MUCH better to be on her good side than her bad side. I applaud Oprah for taking a stand against the “seedy” online marketers (unlike yours truly) who just use popular names for link bait. Way to go Oprah!

-REF