Videos of Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor and former U.S. Senate candidate, have again been altered to sell weight loss products.
A Facebook post about an “odd coffee loophole” includes a video of Oz in front of a coffee shop. In the video, he appears to say, “There’s a lot to say about the health benefits of coffee, but I think the reason why so many Americans have their favorite coffee joint or habit is because they’re finding out it can help drop as much as 2.2 pounds of stubborn body fat overnight.”
Oz goes on to promote a weight loss coffee supplement, and a link redirects users to another video selling a dietary supplement.
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The video of Oz has telltale signs of being a deepfake, — a manipulated video that uses artificial intelligence to mimic a person’s voice or facial expressions. For example, the speaker’s lips do not match up with the audio.
We found the original video on Oz’s Instagram page using a reverse image search.
In the unedited video posted July 28, 2023, Oz says the same first sentence as the altered video. But he does not go on to promote a weight loss supplement. In the full video, he says:
“There’s a lot to say about the health benefits of coffee, but I think the reason so many Americans have their own favorite coffee joint or habit is because they get to sit with themselves for just a few minutes and think about what’s going on in their lives. Maybe sit with our friends or just think through something that’s challenging us. Whatever it may be, those few moments of silence are truly valuable. And for that reason alone, I”m supportive of drinking coffee and whatever habits you may have around it. And I’m curious, what’s your favorite place and why?”
Oz’s official website contains a disclaimer warning people to be wary of scammers selling fake products using his “name and likeness — sometimes even using AI to generate fake videos of what looks like me, but isn’t.” The disclaimer adds that the only real videos of him are on his verified social media accounts.
Oz is a global advisor for iHerb, a website that sells health products. But that website does not sell the dietary supplement Java Burn.
We’ve previously fact-checked other altered videos of Oz that falsely show him selling weight loss products. Oz wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in 2019 criticizing Facebook scam ads that use his videos.
We rate the claim that Dr. Oz promoted a weight loss supplement that can be added to coffee Pants on Fire!