Google Criticized Over ‘Sicko’ Ad Campaign

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Google is taking some hits after Google Health account planner Lauren Turner posted a blog entry which indicated that health care corporations should take advantage of Google ads to negate “some of the sure” to come negative feedback from Michael Moore’s “Sicko” movie. And yes, this is an official Google blog, as it’s linked from the Google Health Advertising page.

Ms. Turner backtracked, and so did Google, saying in a subsequent post that it was her opinion, not Google’s, while Google themselves responded by saying “Google does share many of the concerns that Mr. Moore expresses about the cost and availability of health care in America. Indeed, we think these issues are sufficiently important that we invited our employees to attend his film.”

I saw “Sicko” last night, and while the film doesn’t include the point of the view of U.S. healthcare industry executives (I assume they didn’t relish being on film with Moore) and over rotates in spots, who can deny that the U.S. healthcare system, and the U.S. government that won’t fix it, is deeply flawed. Moore is telling us what we already know, with heartbreaking examples and some humor.

Perhaps Ms. Turner’s blog post is the product of an overzealous, new ad salesperson who is telling the client what they want to hear–”Sicko” picks on the poor U.S. healthcare giants with sensationalist footage and doesn’t talk about all their good deeds. Source: Between the Lines Blog (ZDNet)

We Say: I try to stay away from politics, but since ZDNet didn’t … I’ll just say, why is it we are the only Western country that does not have universal or single-payer health care … and despite that, have shorter life expectancies than most of those countries? And why do we spend $6096 per capita (2004) while Cuba, a very poor country, spends $230 per capita (2004) for health care … yet they have a similar life expectancy equivalent to ours … and a 30% lower infant mortality rate.

OK, off my soapbox, and back to the iPhone line …