Unilever reality show claims the life of my friend Saad Khan
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A little over a week ago, I got one of the most shocking news of my life. An ex-colleague and a good friend Saad Khan passed away during the shoot of a reality show being shot in Thailand. The show was organized by Unilever as part of their ad campaign for Clear Shampoo for Men. Saad died of drowning during an under water challenge which involved pulling weights across the water.
Hearing the news of a friend passing away is in itself devastating, not to mention he was merely 32, a father of 4 very young children, aged between 7 & 2. He was probably the most cheerful person you'd ever meet, and was the 1st in everything among friends, now including leaving us all with memories.
Apart from my personal account, Saad's death is becoming a closely guarded secret by the multinationals involved in the campaign of the show. Ironically, that has become the very reason of it being widespread internationally on blogs and social networking websites.
Unilever and Mindshare, the 2 advertising giants involved in the promotion of the show are making all efforts to cover the incident across the media, to the extent that all blog posts are being slowly blocked. I still can't understand why this is being done, but with this post, I want to set some facts straights and publicize some questions that I'm sure would arise in your minds as well upon hearing the details of Saad's death:
Here's what is known about the show / event which took his life:
According to the details given by Unilever, the fateful challenge involved 4 participants to carry a 7kg weight on their backs across a pond. Saad reportedly drowned as he lost his balance. It is also reported that he suffered a cramp and could not stay afloat, and yelled for help before going down for the last time. It is to be noted that he was an excellent swimmer and had an athletic build of height 6'2".
GEO news went on air with Saad's news for the first time on 28th August at around 5 PST.
The Head of Corporate affairs Unilever Pakistan (Farishtey Gati Aslam) spoke to Geo claiming this to be an accident. She said that the participants were given the option of wearing life jackets but Saad opted out of it. All safety measure were taken.
She never spoke about the 7 kg bag which was fixed with each participant during this stunt, or the fact that none of the participants wore life jackets and the jackets were NOT mandatory.
She also said on air that Unilever is also trying to compensate the family and is in touch with the family, friends etc.
Please note that Farishtey Gati Aslam is the wife of Imran Aslam who is the CEO/President of GEO network. The questions which Geo asked were most likely the questions which were told to them by Unilever to ask!
As a representative of the grieved family & friends, I would like the following questions to be answered:
Corporate Social Responsibility of Unilever & Mindshare in the making of this reality show? Was there ever a document regarding the planning of the event?
Were the safety precautions adequate at the time of shooting any stunt?
Were the participants given any safety trainings / briefing for the stunt?
What are the credentials of Unilever & Mindshare to host and manage a reality show? Any corporation while undertaking any project develops a project plan / manual. We would like to see the project manual for the show.
Were the contestants insured?
On what criteria were the candidates selected? Did the organizers inform the participants of potential danger involved?
If the stunt involved danger of drowning, why was the life jacket optional especially when there was a 7kg bag affixed with every participant?
How may lifeguards were present? In other reality shows like Fear Factor, there is usually 1 guard for each participant who is responsible to look after that individual. Why did it take around 15 minutes to search and take out the body when there were cameras watching the precise spot where Saad went down?
The pond in question is located in Chatuchak park in Bangkok. The pond is reported to be muddy with precise depth unknown. Why was the pond selected without measuring the depth and being tested by professional safety officials before the stunt?
Was this place randomly selected or through a series of approvals?
Why is Unilever / Mindshare avoiding the media on the subject if they took the necessary precautions?
Has any staff from Unilever (the main organizer) actually seen the place before / after the incident?
There are many more such questions in the minds of people who have heard or read about the incident. We demand an official explanation from the officials at Unilever and Mindshare in an open forum.
I was probably the last among the friends to see Saad Khan alive a couple of days before he took off for Thailand. He was very excited and though never told me about the show, said there was a big surprise for everyone out of this trip!
I request you to spread this post as much as you can so that more and more people are aware of the incident. Please also take part in the Official Facebook Community.
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Discussion with one of the contestants, who bore witness to Saad Khan's death.
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Q: How was your relation with Saad Khan during the time you were together?
Participant: We were good friends since the time we met each other. Saad bhai was a great person; we got close in a very short time. He even told me his life story from his struggle to the upward trajectory of his career. We used to hang out together and have fun and play pranks with other fellows. In short it was a very joyful experience spending time with him.
Q. How was his performance throughout the show?
Participant: He was doing really well in whatever tasks he was given, in fact he was the best in all of us. It seemed like he will win the title of Clear Men, because he completely fitted in the image of the Clear Man which was defined by the sponsors. We were surprised when Saad bhai entered the danger zone in the fashion show round.
Q: What kind of tasks were you all given throughout the show? Were there any other dangerous tasks in the game?
Participant: The tasks given were a combination of various stunts & other activities which were more personality driven. One of the task became the casue of participant’s death. How can i say that the tasks given were not dangerous……!
Q. Why did Saad get eliminated after the 4th episode?
Participant: He was eliminated when he was challenged to throw a ball into the basket which was 10 feet above the ground while first walking & then standing on an ice block .He got eliminated as he couldn’t complete the task successfully. We all got very disappointed by what happened. I was sad as I thought Saad bhai would leave in a day or two.
Q. Were you aware that he was still there after his elimination? How did you react when you saw him on the wild card entry round?
Participant: Nobody knew that he was there in the same city. They kept him in a separate hotel. They even recorded his best wishes to all of us, they showed as if it was in Karachi sending us his best wishes and his experience with all of us together, and how he missed those days.
On 19th we were preparing for the other task on the set of the show, when we suddenly saw a tall figure coming towards us smiling… it was Saad bhai… we hooted and danced in excitement, finally we got to meet him again, it was a big and a pleasant surprise for all of us. He was the life of the whole show; we used to miss him a lot.
Q. Did u know what task will be given for the wild card entry?
Participant: We were never told from before about the tasks we were supposed to perform. We used to be told on the spot what we had to do. At that very day we had been given a task that had 3 stages , first, we were supposed to run through the fire carrying a 7 kg sand bag, second, we had to jump into the pond and cross it and third and the last was to climb a rope.
Q: What exactly happened with Saad?
Participant: Saad bhai cleared the first stage, which was running through fire; he jumped in the pond and swam…. When he reached the middle of the pond he suddenly turned and changed his style to backstroke, he looked troubled, we shouted and asked him to open his 7 KG back pack, and he struggled to open it. While struggling he yelled for help and disappeared in the water. When there was no response from him, we dived in the pond to look for him, but couldn’t find him as the water was very muddy and I came out. We started screaming and crying for help but there was no help around. After around 10 minutes his back pack came up floating on the water. The lifeguards came 10 – 12 minutes after the incident occurred and recovered Saad bhai’s body.
Q: You mean to say that there was no professional help on the spot? No paramedics, no safety precautions, nothing at all?
Participant: Unfortunately No, there was nothing present over there, we were given the surety that the pond is not very deep. And there was only first aid help in case of injury! No professional divers no life guards and no snorkelers. We only realized it after this incident that during the 10 episodes a similar incident could have happened with any of the participants as pre-cautionary & safety measures were non-existent which we also never realized……!
Q: Were you surprised that brand names like Unilever , Mindshare & an Indian and Pakistan production house were involved in this show & still safety of the participants was kept as the last priority?
Participant: As i said earlier, we never realized that safety & pre-cautionary measures were not very robust. We never thought on these lines, maybe because of the comfort level we had on the big brand organizers, managers & sponsors which were associated with this show. I wish Saad Bhai would have remained eliminated in order to avoid all what happened. Negligence & carelessness was the cause of Saad bhai’s death.
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Source: Teeth Maestro
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The first witness is thine own consciousness ‐ See thyself, then, with thine own light
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29-08-09, 06:45 PM
Screw you guys.. i`m going home...
Oh my!
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