Press Snippets: Tarkan's Bad Exposure

By Adelind Osmanlı reporting from Munich, Germany

The news of soft drink giant Pepsi "dropping" Tarkan for a local TV actor in a million dollar ad campaign has spread across to other media channels, including NTV - which has been carrying entertainment news about the star ever since his very public arrest after a drugs raid by narcotics and his subsequent custody (see left pic).

<< Read about Tarkan's four day detainment by Turkish authorities here

Previously publishing the love gossip surrounding Tarkan and Nil Özalp, NTV has now made the editorial decision to carry the news from other press sources that Pepsi has apparently decided to change tack in its advertising strategy and go with a currently popular local TV and cinema actor.

It has placed itself in the category of the likes of Haberturk and Akşam, who have also gone with the story that, after being replaced for the police force's celebrations, now Pepsi had decided to drop the disgraced singer, too.

Hitting with the Headlines

Elsewhere, the variety sections of Haberturk and Milliyet are up to their usual gutter level of reporting, while upmarket newspaper Taraf has published an article about Tarkan's lawyer "putting up a red flag" at the media (see left pic).

As Taraf publishes the press statement released by Tarkan's lawyer yesterday - writing that reports of Tarkan failing a drug test were a complete fabrication - Haberturk has published an article claiming that Tarkan has admitted to using drugs.

Under the headline, "Stress Made Me Use Drugs", it goes with the previous story of a drug test coming back positive from the star's sample of blood and urine as though fact, although it adds at the end that Tarkan's lawyer has denied these claims.

Meanwhile, an article in Cadde - the entertainment supplement to Milliyet - also uses the trick of an impacting headline to unrelated variety news in a link-up to Tarkan.

Even though the article has nothing to do with Tarkan being replaced by singer Gülben Ergen - the female singer to reportedly take Tarkan's place in a performance for a police officer's ball - it decides to use Tarkan's name in the headline, and then tag at the end a reminder that it was this singer chosen to replace the pop star for an upcoming event.

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