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Tag: Poonam Pandey

  • MSD ditches Schbang over irresponsible Poonam Pandey death stunt

    MSD ditches Schbang over irresponsible Poonam Pandey death stunt

    Mumbai: MSD, the Indian arm of the American pharmaceutical company Merck, has ended its collaboration with the digital marketing firm Schbang due to its involvement in a controversial publicity stunt featuring actor and model Poonam Pandey.

    Merck manufactures the Gardasil vaccine, which guards against HPV strains linked to cervical cancer. This decision was prompted by the emergence of news regarding the publicity campaign. Certain social media posts implied MSD’s connection to the stunt.

    As per a report in the Economic Times, an MSD spokesperson stated that the partnership was terminated due to conflicts of interest.

    On February 6, venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy connected Schbang to Poonam Pandey and MSD’s HPV vaccine in a LinkedIn post. He shared a link indicating that the awareness campaign had garnered over 43 million YouTube views and had been shared by several influencers.

    Gardasil has been on the market in India since 2008. Gardasil 9, which targets nine HPV strains, is priced at Rs 10,850 per dose, while the quadrivalent Gardasil is priced at Rs 4,000 per dose.

  • The Evolution of Celebrity PR: How Social Media Changed the Game

    The Evolution of Celebrity PR: How Social Media Changed the Game

    Mumbai: In January 2024, we experienced the introduction of Apis Honey, with its launch being endorsed by Sanya Malhotra. Beyond her acting prowess, Sanya is renowned for her dedication to fitness and a mindful lifestyle. Her association with the launch extended beyond mere celebrity endorsement, as her commitment to health aligned seamlessly with the product’s ethos and this association was appreciated by the audiences. Contrastingly, Poonam Pandey generated significant backlash from audiences, particularly on social media, when she falsely claimed her death on her social platforms in February 2024. Merely two days later, she retracted the announcement, attributing it to an attempt to raise awareness about cervical cancer. The controversial episode stirred a wave of negativity, with social media serving as a prominent platform for expressing disapproval.

    Over the years we have seen that celebrity endorsement serve as a powerful catalyst in shaping a brand’s identity and fostering consumer connections. Celebrities, as cultural icons, bring a unique aura and relatability, instantly elevating a brand’s visibility and appeal. Their endorsement not only sparks initial attention but also embeds the product in the consumer’s psyche.

    The world of celebrity public relations has undergone a seismic shift in the digital age, driven by the rise of social media. Gone are the days of meticulously crafted press releases and controlled media narratives. Today, stars and their teams must navigate a dynamic, two-way street of constant engagement with fans and the ever-watchful eye of the internet.

    Traditionally, media outlets served as gatekeepers, controlling the information disseminated about celebrities. Interviews, magazine covers, and carefully managed appearances shaped public perception. Social media bypasses these gatekeepers, empowering celebrities to connect directly with audiences. A Sprout Social report revealed that 89 per cent of consumers follow brands on social media, highlighting the potential for direct engagement. Celebrities like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, with his 344 million Instagram followers, actively cultivate relationships with fans, fostering loyalty and creating a powerful voice beyond traditional media.

    The carefully constructed personas of yesteryear are giving way to a demand for authenticity. Platforms like Instagram Stories and live streams offer unfiltered glimpses into celebrities’ lives, humanizing them and building trust. 72 per cent of consumers expect brands to be authentic on social media, according to Edelman’s 2023 Trust Barometer, a sentiment that extends to celebrities. Stars like Priyanka Chopra, known for her no-nonsense conversations has been promoting her hair care brand on her social pages and garnered sizeable traction and appreciation.

    Interesting aspect of social media is that the social media’s immediacy can turn a minor misstep into a full-blown public relations crisis. Celebrities face the constant risk of being captured in compromising situations or making off-hand remarks that quickly snowball online. Take for instance Akshay Kumar’s endorsement of a pan masala brand in 2023 sparked controversary as he had made open statements during earlier years of never endorsing such products and leading a health conscious life.

    Further, in many cases social media has made it easier to spread misinformation, underscoring the need for swift and effective crisis management.

    Social media empowers celebrities to champion causes they care about, using their platforms to raise awareness and mobilize action. Studies show that 76 per cent of consumers are more likely to trust a brand that supports a cause they care about. Celebrities like Emma Watson, a vocal advocate for gender equality, and Leonardo DiCaprio, known for his environmental activism, leverage their reach to drive positive change.

    Marketers are constantly gathering viable information via social media pages to extract data insights into audience engagement and sentiment and how such endorsements are impacting the brand. PR teams can track follower growth, analyze post performance, and gauge brand sentiment, allowing for data-driven decision-making. Tools like Sprout Social and Hootsuite help measure the impact of campaigns and optimize strategies. This focus on quantifiable results is crucial for demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of social media efforts.

    And how can be ignore the tsunami influencers which have flooded the social media landscape. Micro-influencers, individuals with smaller but highly engaged followings, have emerged as powerful marketing tools. 89 per cent of marketers plan to leverage micro-influencers in 2024 (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2023), and celebrities are increasingly partnering with them to reach specific audiences. Additionally, the role of community management has become critical, with dedicated teams responsible for fostering positive online interactions and mitigating negativity.

    We live in a world of quick consumption and despite its transformative power, social media presents unique challenges for celebrities and their PR teams. The constant pressure to maintain engagement, the threat of online harassment, and the ever-evolving nature of platforms demand adaptability and resilience and most importantly to be relevant in the eyes of the audiences they want to attract.  

    The author of this article is Newton Consulting India COO Smita Khanna Kithania.

  • Airtel releases a report on the mobile attitude of people in 2013

    Airtel releases a report on the mobile attitude of people in 2013

    MUMBAI: Mobile phones have certainly made our lives very easy. From surfing the details of the favourite celebrities and looking for the chartbusters to downloading wallpapers and popular songs, mobile users are doing everything over the phone.

    And keeping this in mind one of the leading telecommunications company, Bharti Airtel, which has operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, released Airtel Mobitude2013 – the 5th edition of the Indian annual survey that captures the mobile attitude of customers highlighting their preferences.

    The report reveals that mobile TV, Bollywood, Hello Tunes, Re 1 entertainment store and gaming ruled customer preferences. Mobile TV witnessed the highest traction this year with a whopping 400 per cent plus jump in viewership over last year. Viewers were glued to entertainment channels most to catch up on all their favorite TV shows and this witnessed an unbeatable traction of over 800 per cent over sports and about 200 per cent over news.

    Bharti Airtel (India) chief marketing officer consumer business, Govind Rajan said in a release: “Today, while the mobile phone is an indispensible 24X7 companion for customers across age groups and geographies, each individual’s preferences and usage requirements differ. Mobitude captures these trends to bring out the true reflection of the customer’s likings and usage habits. The verdict this year has interesting findings of the preferences of more than 194 million customers across the country!”

    Interestingly, the preference of viewers shifted in terms of Bollywood content. In the imagery downloads category, heartthrob Sunny Leone won hearts to top the charts beating Bollywood divas including Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra. Breaking the records of the past five years, the young newbies in the industry dethroned the most popular ‘Khans’. Bold spirited actors – Sunny Leone, Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey emerged as the most downloaded, surpassing the total downloads of their male counterparts. While Ranbir Kapoor tops charts in the male category in the imagery download, Bollywood’s hottest celebrity Katrina Kaif who topped charts for four consecutive years is out of the top five league. On the other hand, Aamir Khan continued to be out of top 5 for the fourth consecutive year.

    In Hollywood, the beautiful preggies Megan Fox and Drew Barrymore made it to the top downloaded in the female category and unlike their Bollywood counterparts, Hollywood hunks Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are defying age to top the download charts.

    In terms of songs, Indians preferred romantic songs over the filmy item numbers. Customers are now humming the romantic number Tum Hi Ho of the movie Aashiqui2 making it the most popular download in the Bollywood Hello Tune category. Other songs like Jeene Laga Hoon from Ramaiya Vastavaiya with newbies in lead roles trend more over songs with popular celebrities. Even Priyanka Chopra’s hit international track Exotic was among the most downloaded English songs.

    In the sports category, Sachin Tendulkar ruled charts with a whopping 124 per cent jump in download compared to last year followed by Roger Federer. Our other men in blue – Dhoni and Yuvraj however were bowled out from the Top five league to give way for women power with Serena Williams, Sania Mirza and Saina Nehwal who joined the wagon this year.

    Driven by the popularity of the Airtel Re 1 entertainments store, data usage continues to grow at a fast pace. The number of data users jump 124 per cent from last year and data consumption jumped 220 per cent.

  • Bajatey Raho: Just a few laughs here and there

    Bajatey Raho: Just a few laughs here and there

    MUMBAI: Bajatey Raho can be termed as a crossbreed genre; it is a revenge comedy. While comedy does not come easily to Hindi writers and often turns out to be forced, revenge in this film is in the guise of what people recently saw in Special 26.

    The film starts off well enough with Tusshar Kapoor visiting a high profile school seeking admission for his brother. The principal rejects him but changes his mind when Kapoor offers him money. It turns out that Kapoor was doing a sting operation on the principal. The principal chases him with a revolver in hand and Kapoor drives away with his getaway partner, Ranvir Shorey. After Kapoor threatens to send the footage to the media, which would spoil the reputation of the school, the principal relents and the matter is settled at a price of rupees three crore.

    In fact, this act was a part of the revenge being sought o the school’s owner, Ravi Kishan, by Dolly Ahluwalia, her son Kapoor, Vinay Pathak and Shorey.

    Kapoor’s father was the manager of a bank run by Kishan. Keeping him as a front, Kishan defrauded middle-class people of crore of rupees with the lure of offering 15 per cent interest within three months. When the three months were up and people wanted their money back, Kishan blamed the manager for the fraud and the bank took no responsibility. The manager and Pathak’s wife, who worked as his aide, were arrested but the manager died of heart attack.

    The depositors then get an order from court to have their money paid back within 15 days or Ahluwalia and Kapoor will be rendered homeless. They need Rs 15 crore of which three has been collected from the school sting; they are in search of the Rs 15 crore from wherever Kishan has hidden it. They will have to wait till the wedding of Kishan’s daughter, but Kishan has promised the same Rs 15 crore in dowry to his son-in-law to be.

    Producers: Sunil A Lulla.
    Director: Shashant Shah.
    Cast: Tusshar Kapoor, Vishakha Singh, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Ravi Kishan, Dolly Ahluwalia.

    Kapoor runs a cable network in his neighbourhood and in this line of business comes across Vishakha Singh and they start dating. To get an entry into Kishan’s farmhouse, Singh poses as a dance instructor and is appointed to choreograph the wedding ‘naach-gaana’ event. Kapoor and Shorey turn into caterers while Pathak becomes ‘bhajan’ singer for the pre-wedding ‘Mata Ki Chowki’. They have to carry out the ultimate heist by outsmarting Kishan, returning the defrauded investor’s money and restoring their family pride.

    The title would suggest this to be a cheap comedy; the fact is there is no comedy at all. In fact, there are more heavy moments in the film. It just meanders till the climax is reached with not much excitement or thrill. There are no distractions either as the bunch goes on executing their grand plan. The script lacks tautness. Direction is okay. Some trimming was needed. Music is passable. Kapoor is his usual self. Singh is good. Kishan is proving to be a good character artiste. Pathak and Shorey support well. Ahluwalia when in the get up of a tycoon does very well.

    Bajatey Raho has not aroused much curiosity so far and the opening has been below par. Improvement seems unlikely.

    Issaq: A desi take on the classic Romeo and Juliet

     

    Producers: Dhaval Gada, Shailesh R. Singh.
    Director: Manish Tiwary.
    Cast: Prateik Babbar, Amyra Dastur, Evelyn Sharma, Malini Awasthy, Ravi Kishan, Makarand Deshpande, Neena Gupta,Sudhir Pandey.

    Issaq is supposed to be a modern day Romeo and Juliet; just how so is another thing altogether. It is about a few warring families who keep wasting bullets over nothing with even a bunch of gun welding Naxalites thrown in. When did Naxalites reach Banaras? Maybe this is a futuristic film. In any case, Banaras is where the film is based. And since the film is supposed to be based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we know the end is going to be not a happy one.

    Prateik Babbar belongs to a local bahubali’s family and leads the family wars with other mafias involved in sand on behalf of his father. Otherwise he chases a ghori girl, a disciple of saffron clad Makrand Deshpande, a guru who can float in air at will. It is at Sudhir Pandey’s Holi festivities that Prateik spots pretty and petite Amyra Dastur, the niece of another mafioso, Ravi Kishan. To add to the sand mafia’s gunshots is a Naxalite group chanting ‘laal salaam’ and taking away trucks-full of sand.

    Prateik chases his romance, Amyra, as thought he is Spider Man. He jumps from walls to walls and terraces across town; he is barely seen walking and makes it a practice of materialising in his lady love’s presence at will. The girl does not take long to reciprocate and a secret rendezvous routine begins. Eventually, they decide to marry with the help of Amyra’s granny, Neena Gupta. As expected, all hell breaks loose.

    There are too many characters dotting the screen and it is time to eliminate some. Ravi Kishan, out to kill Prateik is the first to go. After that there are back stabbings, plotting and scheming as bodies fall with sand digging rights as the trophy. And, to end the film on a Shakespearean note, in a conveniently contrived misunderstanding, the hero and heroine drop dead too.

    The first memory of a Banaras film being H S Rawail’s classic, Sunghursh, which was about clan enmities, watching Issaq is a challenge to one’s senses. Once again, it is a case of a maker trying to sell local fantasies to the national cine-going public. There is no logic, identification and plausibility to be found in this film. The direction is average. Musically, the title song, Issaq tera…. is good. Dialogue is cliché. Prateik is fair while Amyra is very confident considering this is her debut film; she acts well. Ravi Kishan, Pandey and Deshpande are okay in support.

    Issaq is a poor entertainer.

     

    Nasha: An overdose of sleaze and fantasy

    Producers: Surender Suneja, Aditya Bhatia.
    Director: Amit Saxena.
    Cast: Poonam Pandey, Shivam Patil, Sheetal Singh, Vishal P Bhonsle, Rohan Khurana, Ranvir Chakma, Raj Kesaria, Chirag Lobo, Nikhil Desai, NehaPawar, Tanuka Laghate, Mikki Makhija, Mohit Chauhan, Gargi Patel, Seema Roy, Sandeep Hemnaoni, Sanjay Vichare, Akshay Bhagat.

    As a boy attains puberty and comes of age, his first love is usually infatuation and most often his school teacher. There have been numerous movies on this theme. There have also been many films on seduction of a teenager by an older woman, in films, TV, news reports as well as pornography. The theme in Nasha is titillation, and so is the aim because there is nothing that the film has to say as such. There were numerous such films dubbed from Malayalam and screened with interpolation during the 1980s.

    The pupils in this Panchgani co-ed school play funny games where four boys are supposed to strip and wait till a bunch of girls arrive and watch them naked before they jump into the swimming pool! In walks a hot pants-clad cleavage-popping new teacher, Poonam Pandey. The boys turn instant voyeurs and their imagination runs wild. And one thought even students were not permitted to wear such clothes in schools. But this film has its task cut out: to provoke 14 year olds.

    The teacher decides to involve the students in a stage play. The play will, of course, be erotic where a girl will arouse a guy. Thereafter the school is cut down to a small bunch of young boys and girls. Pandey teaches acting with practicals showing the girls how to do it. While all the boys fantasise and joke about this teacher in panty sized shorts, one boy, Shivam Patil, is totally smitten. She invades his life full time, while he eats, sleeps, walks he only dreams of Pandey. So much so he even starts ignoring his steady girlfriend. The teacher is very amiable which leads Patil to believe she cares for him too. That is till Pandey’s boyfriend drops in. Patil is shattered but he still believes Pandey is not the type who would sleep with her boyfriend before marrying him.

    Dared by his friends, he slyly sneaks into her house at night only to find her in bed with the man. He predictably bangs into a table for her to come out to see who the intruder is. Her wrap is caught in piece furniture and there she is standing full frontal nude in front of him holding a candle in her hand! This only fires more passion in our young boy’s heart. What follows is much footage of teasing the boy’s emotions and passion, driving him almost crazy; he has to have her!

    Patil’s hopes soar when Pandey’s friend two-times her and their relationship comes to an end. He is not her only companion. While all this goes on, the school, the play, the extracurricular activities that the teacher Pandey is here for are all forgotten. It is a game of patience for Patil as well as the audience till Pandey sleeps with Patil and brings the ordeal to an end. For whatever reason, she decides to pack her bag and leave town but finally obliges Patil before leaving. Having got what he wanted, Patil is back to normal and back with his school girlfriend!

    Pandey suits the role she has been cast in. Patil acts well. Rest of the young boys and girls are also natural. Direction is fair. Music does not help much.

    Earlier, it was said that such films did well with cinemas patronised by the masses and in the interiors. Well, there was no porn at a click of a mouse or cell phone button at that time. Now there is not much left in the name of mass-cinema halls still standing in the interiors. Nasha will not find much favour at the box office.