Friday February 2, 2024, the Instagram account of a 32-year-old Indian model and influencer, Poonam Pandey, announced her death from cervical cancer. A day later, Saturday February 3, the young woman appeared on her networks revealing that it was in fact a hoax carried out with the aim of raising awareness about this disease. A joke that did not go down at all with Internet users.
This is a situation that no one expected; influencers are not short of somewhat crazy ideas. While a former participant of Married at first sight, Pedro, pranked his subscribers by making them believe that he had remarried a woman, he is homosexual, for the purposes of a commercial operation, it is the turn of an Indian influencer and model to make a bad joke. And unfortunately, this time the deception does not work!
Indeed, in a press release published on her networks Friday February 2, the young woman Poonam Pandey announced her death from cervical cancer after having “courageously fought the disease“. While the country was moved by the news, Bollywood stars paid tribute to her and the media even published her obituary, the 32-year-old finally revealed 24 hours later that all this was in fact just ‘a lie. She explains in a video posted on her Instagram account on Saturday February 3, that she faked her death in order to raise awareness and open Indian women to cervical cancer.
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Critics flourish on the networks
If some already suspected the deception given that a few days before the young woman had appeared in excellent health, a large majority of her 1.3 million subscribers believed it. In her explanatory video, the young woman indicates that she is not unhappy with the effect produced: “Yes, I faked my disappearance, it’s extreme, I know. But suddenly we’re all talking about cervical cancer, right?» she wrote before adding: “I am proud of what the announcement of my death was able to accomplish“.
Unfortunately, many Internet users did not understand or support the young woman in her business, they even accused her of simply wanting to take advantage of this news by drawing attention to her and creating as much buzz as possible. read it in the comments of the publication: “Engaging in a deceptive operation, such as faking your death, under the guise of “raising awareness” is not only unethical, but also manipulative”, “Woman, have you completely lost your mind? », “You have made your existence a joke! It’s ridiculous !! There could be better ways to raise awareness about the situation”, “Shame on you (…) next time, no one will take your real death seriously!” or “Disgusting. As a cancer survivor myself, you have crossed the line that should not be crossed! It wasn’t about cancer awareness! It was about your 2 days of glory, taking advantage of other people’s emotions!»
If India is one of the countries most affected by cervical cancer with almost a quarter of global cases as revealed by the World Health Organization, this does not seem to be the best way to raise awareness population.
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