Poonam Pandey's act 'horrible' PR stunt, downgrades cervical cancer risks

NEW DELHI: Influencers, content creators, and startup founders, along with hundreds of people around the country, on Saturday slammed controversial model-cum-actor Poonam Pandey for faking her death, calling it "shameful" and "unethical".

Pandey has once again made headlines by coming back to life after she was declared dead by her PR-cum-doctor team due to cervical cancer.

She posted a video on Instagram on Saturday, saying 'she is alive' and had faked her demise as she wanted to ignite a conversation around cervical cancer.

After learning that it was a PR stunt planned by the actress and her team and that too on a sensitive issue like cervical cancer, influencers, content creators, startup founders and others took to social media platforms, calling her act as "shameful", "unethical" and more.

"Whoever crafted the Poonam Pandey campaign, must know that the message that comes out is that people don’t die of cervical cancer," Gabbar, Co-founder of JoinHoodApp, wrote on X.

"Death stunts for marketing campaigns no matter how important the messaging is at the end is a horrible thing to do. It is the stupidest thing to do ever, super low - absolute horrible PR, attention stunt," said brand consultant and social media evangelist Manish Pandey.

Cervical cancer is the second most common form of cancer among Indian women, accounting for about 18 per cent of all cancers occurring in this demographic group.

India accounts for one in every five or 21 per cent of cervical cancer cases, according to a recent study published in the journal 'The Lancet Global Health'.

The cancer also causes almost one in every four or 23 per cent deaths in the country.