In India, erotic model and actress Poonam Pandey faked her own death to raise awareness about cervical cancer. In doing so, she has sparked a controversial debate in her country about the ethics of online campaigns.
On Friday, the 32-year-old’s official Instagram profile with 1.3 million followers announced that she had died of cervical cancer. The news spread extremely quickly.
But Pandey soon clarified that she had faked her death only to create awareness about the disease.
Looking for attention or important message?
Many found her actions and her pursuit of attention distasteful – especially people who have to deal with cancer in their immediate environment. Pandey responded to news reports that her own mother had cancer.
Criticism, insults and hatred
Since the campaign, she has emphasized several times that she is proud of the attention it has generated. She decided to take action for a good cause – although she expected a strong backlash.
She was also not spared from headwinds. In fact, you can read a lot of criticism and hate messages in the comments below her current posts.
“When is the next anniversary of your death?”
“Shame on you for doing ANYTHING to get attention,” they say. “Cheap publicity,” “You’re a gravedigger!” or “You want to spread awareness for a good cause by spreading fake news? “It’s just ridiculous,” other users said. “I hate you from the bottom of my heart,” someone tells her. Another wrote: “When is the next anniversary of your death?”
“We believe in the cause!”
Responding to the criticism, Poonam said, “We believe in this cause and stand behind this campaign that we worked on four months ago with the right intentions!”
Tens of thousands of people die every year from cervical cancer in India, in a country with 1.4 billion inhabitants. Since the campaign two days ago, she has already published nine Instagram posts on the subject – and secretly feels like she needs an explanation…
Source: Krone
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