Who killed Poonam Pandey?

Yes, yes, we all know the lady is alive.

But she pretended to die a week or so ago and then came back to life stating it was a pro-bono stunt to raise awareness of cervical cancer. But let's get a step deeper, shall we?

Was it really pro-bono - or did someone pay for it? If so, who paid for it? Whose name is missing from the entire commentary on this marketing stunt?

Was it self-publicity?

At first, one thought it was an effort in self-publicity. Because Ms. Pandey is known for this mode of marketing. Then the lady herself said, no, it was the brainchild of a social media firm called Schbang . I then thought (and wrote) that it was probably one of those scam ads done for awards.

...till Schbang came out and said it was something they did for an online site - a millennial woman's portal called Hauterrfly . Things got interesting now. Was this true - or an artful attempt at misdirection?

When you look at this portal Hauterfly - it had virtually no traffic till 2 weeks ago. Then its traffic went up with the controversy from 2,000 visits a day to around 90,000 visits - and has since died back to original levels.

There's no plausible reason that this site, which was near its own death, would suddenly wake up and do a pro-bono campaign around Cervical Cancer, given that what it is known for is something else altogether.

Here, for instance are what Hauterrfly is indexed and gets over 10% of its traffic for - news on the areolar protuberances of one actress, and on the nocturnal preferences of another. It's not, by any stretch of the imagination, a respected health resource for young ladies, or their parents:

So trying to justify it as a pro-bono social awareness collab doesn't quite hold water.

If the finger is being pointed AT Hauterrfly - who is it being pointed AWAY from? Let's look deeper.

Then one looked at the profile of the actress who appeared to die.

Ms. Pandey says she is represented by an influencer management firm called #Xtra Media | A Fork Media Group Co. Notice the "Fork Media Group" connect.

Now where have we seen this connect before?

Right, so Ms. Pandey's management firm is a sister company of the portal with who she apparently "collaborated" with for "social awareness". Look closer at Fork Media Group and it tells you it creates content for advertisers.

Tracing the connects.

Now we know there's a social media firm involved (Schbang), an influencer involved (Ms. Pandey), there's an influencer marketing agency involved (Xtra), there's a struggling portal owned by the same guys who own the influencer marketing agency involved (Hauterrfly).

And we can see the website they all refer to (poonampandeyisalive.com) and one can see it was registered back in July 2023. 6 months before the stunt. So this isn't a last-minute thing. It's been in the works since July 2023, at least.

So why would a social media firm go to a well-known influencer and then her management firm and then their associated struggling portal to run an apparent pro-bono campaign? Why wouldn't they do it themselves?

And all this effort, for free? For a social cause? My antennae are up. Let's go further.

A little about cervical cancer, HPV and a multi-billion dollar market.

UNICEF itself estimates that the market for HPV vaccines (which are used in the fight against cervical cancer) is over US$ 3 billion. India is one of the largest markets with an estimated value of over US$ 1 billion.

India is going to specify HPV vaccines very soon.

.Two Western multinationals are in the race: Merck Sharp & Dohme- better known as MSD , and 荷商葛蘭素史克藥廠 . An Indian firm, Serum International Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. is entering the race as well.

Now Serum is quoting around INR 1,000 per dose.

MSD sells its vaccine abroad for up to INR 24,000 per dose. MSD wants to come into India at INR 4,000 a dose.

A recent study in The Lancet announced that India's vaccine - from the Serum Institute of India - SII - is just as effective as MSD's Gardasil vaccine against HPV / cervical cancer.

This made news around the world - and in India too.

That's inconvenient for MSD. It has earlier problems as well.

It's very same anti-cervical cancer, HPV vaccine Gardasil was accused of having killed several Indian children about 10 years ago.

So MSD is fighting back quietly - it cannot advertise the vaccine by law in India.

There are what appear to be sponsored articles saying how good it is appear in a US publication - along with pieces on how doubtful the Indian low-cost competitor is. Why a small US-based science portal would go so far out of the way to write about an Indian vaccine for sale in India is otherwise hard to imagine.

Back to MSD and its marketing of its Gardasil HPV vaccine in India.

MSD has been working with and paying its ad agency - guess who - Schbang for a while. All to promote its anti cervical cancer HPV vaccine product.

Schbang speaks of what they did for MSD earlier, in May 2023, specifically for a HPV vaccine, against cervical cancer.

Schbang launched this set of videos for MSD's cervical cancer vaccine in July 2023.

Schbang also talks of their skills in doing 'silent' pharma marketing.

Given that Pharma marketing, like that of alcohol, has strict laws governing it in India there's an expertise needed to stay just on the right side of the law. Schbang's LinkedIn post in Nov 2023 talks of how well they do it, quoting their work for MSD.

What's more amazing is that MSD 's name hasn't yet come out in the press on their connect to this marketing stunt. I assure you it's by design.

Given that the business prospect of $1 billion+ in revenues was heating up, MSD and Schbang probably put the next step in place, with selling the "Poonam Pandey Is Alive" idea and registering the website a little later in July 2023.

It probably took a few months to get internal approvals, and line up for what they figured was the day India's Finance Minister would announce the effort.

And then they deployed the campaign in January 2024, timing it for the reveal to coincide with the Indian Finance Minister's announcement.

What it all adds up to.

There you have it.

What you all went though - including a faked human death, complete manipulation of your emotions, and a collective death of Indian journalism - was in all likelihood a marketing campaign paid for by a pharma major, MSD, which is trying hard to remain in the shadows. You haven't seen their name associated with this effort till now.

This, in a bottle, is why Poonam Pandey was 'killed'.

All this is so that the firm can ostensibly can sell their product to your daughters at 4 times the price of what an equally good local alternative costs.

Merck, a firm that has tried hard to say it is ethical and responsible in it marketing, has in all likelihood lied, fooled, killed off someone and then tried to hide its hand behind the entire sordid marketing program.

People have talked about banning Ms. Pandey from social platforms for the horror she put them through.

But look a little deeper.

Look at the people paying for it. The people approving the campaign.

It's all about money, honey.

Post-publication edits:

(1) I corrected the logo to the correct MSD one, after public feedback. Thank you Rupali Kalav !

(2) Also it turns out that though Merck and Merck Sharp Dohme (MSD) have a common origin, the companies are unconnected today and use the name "Merck" in a complicated arrangement across geographies. Merck is a German firm. Merck Sharp Dohme or MSD is American. The firm that deals with the anti-cervical cancer Gardasil drug in India is MSD. So I changed all references from Merck / MSD to MSD, for clarity. Thank you to the folks from Merck Group who pointed this out.)

MSD 默克 Merck Animal Health

Mahesh Murthy is a marketer, investor and space tech entrepreneur. Don't worry, the marketing firm he owns, Pinstorm , does no work for anyone in the pharma industry. So this piece wasn't commissioned by anyone :-)