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Alive and advocating? Poonam Pandey fakes her demise in publicity stunt
The model and actor tied up with Hauterrfly to run a campaign on cervical cancer.
On February 2, 2023, model and actress Poonam Pandey’s team announced her passing, citing cervical cancer as the cause. The news of her demise quickly spread across various media and news outlets and became a trending topic on social media platforms. Media organisations including Times of India, NDTV, Hindustan Times, India Today, and WION provided extensive coverage of her demise immediately upon its announcement.
While some speculated about the possibility of her faking her death, the majority accepted the information as true based on what was seen and heard.
In a shocking turn of events, the 32-year-old announced on her Instagram today that she is alive. She explained that the previous reports were part of a campaign to raise awareness about cervical cancer and emphasised the significance of taking the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
“I am sorry I caused hurt. My intention? To shock everyone into the conversation we aren’t having enough. Which is cervical cancer. Yes, I faked my death. Extreme, I know, but suddenly we all are talking about cervical cancer,” she said.
Pandey collaborated with Hauterrfly, a media platform for women, owned by Mumbai-based Fork Media Group to bring out the conversation about cervical cancer. The page also hosts the site www.poonampandeyisalive.com, which opens with the message 'Death to cervical cancer' followed by detailed information about the disease.
The company was live on Instagram with the actor at around 1 pm to talk about the campaign and address netizens’ doubts and concerns. In the conversation, Pandey claimed that the entire exercise was to raise awareness and start a conversation around cervical cancer and she did all of this free of cost.
The announcement of her 'death' due to cervical cancer was spread after Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement during the Interim Budget highlighted the central government's plans to raise awareness about the condition. In another Instagram post, Pandey says, “Feel free to express your frustration - I understand. But this is not just lip service, instead, I’m committing my entire body to the service of cervical cancer.”
Today’s news about the awareness brought several backlashes from netizens and certain celebrities. Celebrities including TV and film producer Ekta Kapoor, designer Saisha Shinde, actor Ridhi Dogra, influencer Kusha Kapila, television actor Tina Dutta, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, and actor Sophie Choudry criticised the actor and the agency behind this campaign, calling it the worst publicity stunt.
Reality show Bigg Boss 17's winner Munawar Faruqui initially expressed his condolence for Pandey but when the news of her being alive was surfaced, he took to X (formerly Twitter) saying "Poonam ki PR team ko cancer nahi bawasir hua hai."
However, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma had a different opinion on the same and lauded Pandey for taking a bold step.
Journalists Faye D’Souza and Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj also slammed this move on their social media calling the campaign distasteful and disrespectful.
Poonam Pandey is known for creating such publicity stunts. In 2020, she was booked for violating Covid norms in Mumbai. She also involved herself in the Lakshadweep-Maldives controversy, announcing the cancellation of her shoot in the Maldives to visit Lakshadweep instead.
The trend of using an actor or celebrity to attract the public’s attention is on the rise. Recently, Fever FM, a part of HT Media Group, surprised its audience by initially announcing a shutdown, only to later unveil a strategic rebranding initiative, causing a stir among its listeners.
A week ago, actor and dancer Nora Fatehi expressed her dismay on Instagram regarding a brand's use of a deepfake of her for promotional purposes. It was later revealed that this was part of an advertising campaign by HDFC aimed at raising awareness about financial fraud.
