Now that the excitement over Poonam Pandey’s supposed death has died down, is it too late to discuss the implications of her stunt? Reactions have been largely negative, not unexpectedly. To claim to have died of cervical cancer only to resurrect yourself the next day because you wanted to raise awareness about cervical cancer is both extreme and trivial. That this death followed the announcement of a government scheme and the launch of an indigenously-manufactured HPV vaccine by an Indian company, and knowing that Pandey likes a bit of publicity for herself, rung a few alarm bells, but evidently not enough.
In that, it’s hard to dismiss a formal death announcement as a publicity prank, and yet that is what it was.
A columnist on this website, Vikas Mehta, tried yesterday to negotiate through all the reactions – shock, laughter, outrage – and came to two conclusions: that younger people did not see the event as angrily as most people, and that any publicity is good publicity. And shock tactics often work in the world of advertising.
The last is a well-known axiom in the world of publicity. And Poonam Pandey is skilled in the art of staying in the news for doing as little as possible. The Kardashians you might say are masters of the craft. To become famous for being mildly famous and then use that fame to build zillions of careers, not least the family’s own. Pandey is not quite in that category… but she tries poor thing.
Is awareness about cervical cancer important? Definitely.
Is awareness about a vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer important? Without the shadow of a doubt.
Do you have to pretend to die to create this awareness?
Well.
It is not clear whether Pandey jumped on to this cervical cancer bandwagon herself, or whether she was hired to do so. Were either the Union Government or the Serum Institute of India part of this? No clarity on that yet, although even I would be shocked if they had paid for this.
The agency which organised the death issued a statement after the event, which included this explanation:
“There was no change in people’s curiosity regarding Cervical Cancer when our Honourable Finance Minister mentioned it no less than a few days ago during the Union Budget.
“The act by Poonam has now resulted in making Cervical Cancer and its related terms the most searched topic (s) on Google.”
From a publicity point of view then Pandey and her team feel they have won. She’s got her two minutes and then will move on to a new demo of her untested skills.
Some media watchers have blamed journalists for carrying the news of her death without checking, given Pandey’s history. Others make the excuse that since the death announcement came from Pandey’s own team, how could journalists have further confirmed this death?
No clear answer there.
But this is what will happen. For one, cancer patients and their families, and those who have lost loved ones to cancer, will feel the pain of someone trying to benefit from their suffering. This feeling will not go away just because she did this to raise awareness. All of us cancer patients, victims, survivors, whatever we call ourselves, know the shock within when you get the diagnosis of the Big C, of mortality, of fatality, of imminent death. Yes, life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease. But we all feel we should get the chance to complete our three score years and ten, and hopefully then some. Pandey’s stunt played on the worst of our fears and attempted to profit from them. And then, trivialised the journeys of millions, not all of whom survive their cancer diagnosis.
Secondly, it is doctors who need maximum awareness about this vaccine, especially first response doctors. Oncologists enter the picture later in the journey. How many gynaecologists have started jumping about saying “O yaay, Poonam Pandey pretended to die and now my patients can get a vaccine”?
The change will come from the medical community, from camps conducted, from taking healthcare to slums and remote areas, to targeting women at Primary Health Centres, those who get left behind in the race for health.
Regardless of online fame, cancer and death are real. Rarely fun. And sometimes, bad publicity is just a bad idea.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.