(CNN)– A California household states their identities were taken and utilized in a Facebook advertisement for a business selling a protective mask that declared to have actually saved the youngest boy in a family of 5 from Covid-19
” It was sickening and it was breaching,” said Sara Ancich, 45, of Orange County after seeing the ad for the first time Sunday.
The video was taken down Monday, a representative for Facebook told CNN.
Ancich, a sixth-grade English and history instructor, states she ended up being conscious of the ad April 10 when her brother-in-law texted her about it.
The advertisement opens with the photo of the household, solemn music beneath and text that checks out: “Youngest son from a family of 5 is the sole survivor from the deadly pandemic after using a CDC authorized respirator.”
The image is an expertly shot image of her household from eight years ago that the photographer, Rich Lander, posted on his site, Ancich informed CNN. The image has actually given that been gotten rid of by the professional photographer.
The ad then claims the family balked at government warnings and went to a 176- person occasion and that “Justin,” the youngest child, was the only member of the family to wear a mask. Behind that text, the ad ran video of the British royal family inside Westminster Abbey. The text over the unknown, smiling, kid, says that he “directly escaped death.”
Ancich’s youngest kid, now 16, is named Ryan.
” The kid that apparently represented our youngest boy, we do not know who that young boy is,” Ancich stated.
The video featuring the Ancich family is among several variations that have been investigated by other media outlets with differing images and video but the exact same “sole survivor” script and FilterMax branding.
The advertisement says FilterMax “releases dual purification valve technology with a 5-layer security filter, which efficiently blocks out 99.9%of bacteria, dust, smog, and pollen from entering your lungs.” The ad likewise claims they are FDA-approved– a claim CNN might find no evidence for on the list of approved respirators on the FDA website.
Numerous business utilize the name “FilterMax.” CNN was not able to definitively ascertain which business is behind the video but reached out to a number of online shops that were, at one point, selling the masks under that name.
Shopify, a platform that hosted at least two shops that offered the masks, told CNN through a representative that their “teams continue to actively examine COVID-19 related products and businesses.”
” Over the last couple of weeks we have closed more than 5,000 stores in our COVID-19 related evaluations,” the statement stated.
Facebook has actually gotten rid of the video and “taken actions to keep individuals from sharing it,” the Facebook spokesperson told CNN.
” We apologize to the household impacted by the video,” the spokesperson included.
” We likewise continue working to stop people from exploiting this crisis for monetary gain by prohibiting the sale of masks and other items that are linked to predatory habits.”
Facebook also clarified the FilterMax ad did not run as paid circulation, which the platform actively reveals to users, however “appeared organically.”
