Airing Of Supposedly Paid Content During ‘Capital Talk’ Raises Eyebrows
In an apparent case of paid promotion, prime time talk show ‘Capital Talk’ featured singer Atif Aslam promoting ‘Zong’ for its ‘unmatchable’ 4g services across Pakistan.
The Pakistani singer during his interview to Hamid Mir, said that he collaborated with Zong because the company was willing to project the positive image of Pakistan and to show the northern areas of the country to attract tourists. The singer went on to say: “Zong 4g towers are considered as number one towers in the entire country.”
He further said that Zong wanted to send a message to its users that Pakistani nation would defeat the deadly coronavirus together.
The current affairs program has generated an outrage on social media where people on Twitter are condemning the marketing tactic.
Those who were criticizing @nestlepakistan for its “cheaper marketing” through newscasters during the bulletin, should watch this paid content of @Zongers in the current affairs show #capitaltalk where the famous singer #AtifAslam is terming #Zong as excellent 4G network pic.twitter.com/QQ9Xqjeo34
— M. Asim Khan (@asimnyazee) June 17, 2020
So, that's why Atif appeared in the show. https://t.co/v8gLoeWKMe
— Waqas Habib Rana (@waqas464) June 18, 2020
zong sponsor program?
— Rehan (@rehanasghar3) June 10, 2020
Last week, a video of two Abb Tak news anchors went viral on social media in which they were promoting Nestle juice through drinking them in the newsroom during the live telecast of the news bulletin. The newscasters further go on to announce a promotional offer that the juice company had announced due to the increased usage of the internet during the times of social distancing and spending most of our time in quarantine.
The new marketing stint by the company had faced criticism all over the internet while people had been fuming that marketing has infiltrated journalism to this extent that even a news bulletin is not free of paid publicity and product placement.
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