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Schbang apologises for Poonam Pandey fake-death stunt
Schbang, the digital marketing agency behind the Poonam Pandey fake death stunt, claims the ‘act’’ resulted in making ‘Cervical Cancer’ and its related terms the most searched ‘topics on Google’.
US drug giant Merck’s Indian affiliate MSD terminated its association with Schbang after speculations surfaced that the pharmaceutical major and its India affiliate were allegedly involved. (From left to right: Image source - Schbang (YouTube) and Poonam Pandey (News18))
Digital agency Schbang released a statement on Instagram stating that it was the orchestrator behind the fake-death stunt of Indian model and actor Poonam Pandey. Their statement read, “Yes, we were involved in the initiative for Poonam pandey to spread awareness about Cervical Cancer in collaboration with Hauterfly. To start off, we would like to extend a heartfel apology - especially towards those who have been triggered as a result of having faced/having loved one face the hardships of any kind of Cancer.”
The digital agency also went on to state that the ‘act’ pulled off by Pandey resulted in making ‘Cervical Cancer’ and its related terms the most searched ‘topics on Google’. “This is the first time in the history of this country that the word ‘Cervical Cancer’ has been on 1000+ Headlines”,” read the statement.
Schbang apologised for inadvertently causing grief.
On Friday, the team of Indian model and actor Poonam Pandey took to Instagram to announce that Pandey had succumbed to cervical cancer at the age of 32.
A day later, on Saturday, Pandey released a video stating that it was an act to raise awareness about cervical cancer. This left the internet divided and Pandey received massive backlash.
Wow, so #PoonamPandey is alive. A friend of mine told me in private last night that this is a campaign by a digital agency, but I was skeptical. Because could we really fall this low? Looks like we have.
— Nikhil Taneja (@tanejamainhoon) February 3, 2024
So many things wrong with this. #Thread
Poonam Pandey situation is a pretty good insight into the fact that a lot of news media is essentially just retweeting not reporting. She’s alive, journalism though….
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) February 3, 2024
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