MSD ends association with Schbang: ‘Poonam Pandey death stunt grossly irresponsible’

Pharma giant MSD has decided to part ways with the Schbang, the company told e4m. The move comes in the aftermath of the Poonam Pandey death stunt last week, which was widely criticised. The agency was onboarded by the pharma company for creative marketing solutions.  

Poonam Pandey garnered a lot of flak for faking her death as part of a cervical cancer initiative to raise awareness among women to take the HPV vaccine. The stunt was conceptualized by Schbang in association with Hauterfly (A Fork Media Group Co.). MSD, the manufacturer of the Gardasil vaccine targeting certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) linked to cervical cancer, was dragged into the controversy and was accused of being the brand behind the initiative. 

In an official statement, MSD told e4m, “MSD would like to categorically state that the recent public relations activity on cervical cancer carried out by Poonam Pandey and digital marketing agency Schbang was neither initiated with MSD’s endorsement nor made with the knowledge of MSD. We are of the view that this activity was grossly irresponsible and distasteful and goes against our company’s values of ethics and integrity. Upon becoming aware of the involvement of Schbang, we had taken immediate actions to terminate our service contract with the agency with all rights reserved.” 

“Regarding the aforementioned public relations activities, MSD is of the view that as disease awareness is important for prevention and protection of people against certain HPV-related cancers and diseases, it is critical that such messages are always scientifically and medically accurate whilst delivered in an appropriate manner”, they added. 

exchange4media has reached out to Schbang but have yet to recieve a comment from the agency.

The stunt, characterized as an 'initiative' by Pandey to raise awareness, left netizens feeling deceived. Consequently, Pandey, Hauterfly, and Schbang issued an apology in response.