US drug giant Merck’s Indian affiliate MSD has terminated its association with Schbang, the digital marketing agency that was behind the highly controversial publicity stunt that involved model and influencer Poonam Pandey faking her own death.
A day after Pandey announced her fake demise, Schbang released a statement on Instagram stating that it was the orchestrator behind the fake-death stunt 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 heartfelt 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.
Entrepreneur and investor Mahesh Murthy wrote on social media about publicity stunts that have received a lot of attention. The major one being the fake death and resurrection of Indian actress Poonam Pandey. What appeared to be an effort to raise awareness about cervical cancer took an unusual turn, prompting speculation that pharmaceutical giant Merck and its India affiliate MSD was allegedly involved in planning the entire affair.
At first glance, the stunt appeared to be Pandey’s self-promotion strategy, considering her reputation for unusual marketing methods. However, she attributed the idea to Schbang, which caused concern and prompted further investigation.
As the plot thickened, there was speculation that the collaboration involved an online portal called Hauterrfly. Interestingly, Hauterrfly’s traffic increased dramatically during the controversy, only to return to normal afterward. This raised concerns regarding the reliability of the campaign, especially given Hauterrfly’s usual content, which focuses more on celebrity gossip rather than health-related issues.
Pandey’s management firm, #Xtra Media, is a sister company of Fork Media Group, which owns Hauterrfly. Fork Media Group specializes in creating content for advertisers, raising questions about the true reasons behind the campaign.
The curiosity pot was further stirred when the website’s registration date, poonampandeyisalive.com, was traced back to July 2023, six months before the stunt. This called on the planned nature of the campaign.
Schbang had previously collaborated with Merck through MSD to promote the HPV vaccine. Merck’s pursuit of the Indian market, because of the market worth of more than $1 billion for its HPV vaccines, has come into focus.
Industry observers have alleged that the whole “Poonam Pandey Is Alive” campaign was meticulously planned months in advance and the entities involved registered the website in July 2023. The campaign launched in January/February 2024, coinciding with the day of the budget speech by the Finance Minister. FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced during her interim budget speech that the government will promote HPV vaccines for girls aged 9 to 14.
Available in India since 2008, Gardasil 9 targets nine HPV variants and costs ₹10,850 per dose, while the quadrivalent Gardasil costs ₹4,000 per dose. The Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Cancer Registry Programme reported over 340,000 cervical cancer cases by 2023.
Speculations lead to believe that the planned Poonam Pandey stunt was part of a larger marketing campaign to indirectly promote its Gardasil HPV vaccine in India.
Storyboard18 has reached out to Schbang with questions regarding the campaign and its work with HPV vaccine products makers and around raising awareness about cervical cancer. Meanwhile, MSD has issued a statement to ET, stating that the campaign “is not associated with MSD in any way or form” and, following this incident, it has terminated the service contract with Schbang, on the grounds of conflict of interest.
Pharmaceutical advertising, like alcohol advertising, is highly regulated and restrictive, prompting many brands to do surrogate advertising in the liquor industry or silent pharma marketing tactics.