Sponsorship and advertising policy
Malady Wise is free. Sponsorship may help keep it that way, but only on these terms. They apply to the website, the games, Zebra Mail and our X posts.
Why we take sponsors
- Sponsors help pay for hosting, tools and time, so the puzzles, fact sheets and newsletter stay free for everyone.
- We’d rather have no sponsor than one that costs us your trust.
Our independence
- Sponsors never see, edit or approve our content before it’s published.
- Sponsors never choose puzzle answers, clues, themes or quiz questions.
- Nothing a sponsor pays for changes our medical content: fact sheets, medicines, blood tests, handouts, deep dives, tools or news.
- We don’t write reviews of, or recommend, a sponsor’s product as part of a deal.
- Our content follows the evidence, even when that’s bad news for a sponsor.
What we may accept
- Health-adjacent education and evidence-based public information.
- Books, courses and study tools for clinicians and students.
- Medical and health education providers.
- Recruitment for health jobs.
- Charities and public health campaigns.
- Consumer brands with no health claims (for example games, stationery, software or travel).
Every sponsor is checked first, and must follow the advertising laws where its ad will be seen.
What we never accept
- Advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public, including medicinal cannabis.
- Compounded medicines.
- Unproven or alternative “cures”, weight-loss “miracle” products, and supplements or other products making therapeutic claims.
- Tobacco, vaping, gambling, alcohol, crypto, and payday or other high-cost lenders.
- Political or religious advertising.
- Anything aimed at children.
- Testimonial-based ads for health services, or ads that are misleading or create unreasonable expectations of benefit.
- Endorsement of a therapeutic product by a Malady Wise doctor.
- Anything that breaks Ahpra or TGA advertising rules, or advertising rules elsewhere.
How sponsored content is labelled
- Every paid item is clearly marked “Sponsored” or “Advertisement”: on the website, in Zebra Mail and in X posts.
- Paid social posts carry #ad at the start, where it can’t be missed. We never use vague labels like “sp” or “collab”.
- Sponsored content looks different from our own content and sits apart from it, so you can always tell which is which.
- We name the sponsor on every sponsored item.
Puzzles and quizzes
- A sponsor can be named on a game day, for example: “Today’s puzzles are supported by …”.
- A sponsor, brand or product is never an answer, a clue or a hint.
- Sponsorship never changes an answer, a difficulty level or a score.
Your data
- We don’t sell or share your personal data with sponsors, including Zebra Mail email addresses.
- Sponsors get aggregate reports only, such as total views or clicks, never anything that identifies you.
- Sponsored links don’t add tracking beyond what our privacy policy describes.
Conflicts of interest
- We disclose relevant financial interests, such as a paid relationship with a company named on a page.
- The GP behind Malady Wise doesn’t accept payment from companies to promote treatments, in clinical work or on this site.
- Sponsorship of the site never affects anyone’s clinical care.
Our right to refuse or remove
- We can turn down any sponsor or ad, or remove one at any time, without giving a reason.
- We’ll remove a sponsored item straight away if it turns out to break this policy or the law.
Raise a concern
- If an ad or sponsored item looks wrong, misleading or unlabelled, please contact us. We read every message.
Questions? Contact us.