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Although Jiahe Entertainment’s projects in the past few years have been mediocre in performance and profitability, it is still a well-established entertainment company that has once produced high-quality projects and hit TV dramas.
Even though it is now on the decline, it is still better than nothing, as the saying goes, “a camel is still larger than a horse even if it is skinny.”
When the news of the casting call for the movie “Overnight Riches” was released, many artists in the industry who got wind of it were interested in trying out, including some online celebrities with a certain level of popularity and influence.
However, upon seeing the director of the movie, Han Zhiguo, and the male lead, Xu Dingjun, many were puzzled.
Who are these unknown individuals?
Where did these two unknown people come from?
Some curious netizens searched for information about the director Han Zhiguo and the male lead Xu Dingjun, only to be surprised to find out that director Han Zhiguo had never directed a decent film before, only a campus short film that was dug out from a corner.
As for the male lead Xu Dingjun, he was even less known and had never even played a supporting role before. Can these two people really be the director and male lead of a movie? Netizens expressed deep skepticism.
Just as everyone was expressing surprise and doubt, some well-informed netizens pointed out the truth of the matter—how obvious it was!
The director and the male lead must have been brought in with a backer.
Xu Dingjun is so handsome; maybe some big shot wanted to promote him and specifically found a director to make a movie for him, hence this production team was formed.
Nowadays, everyone knows that whenever a production team is mentioned to have been backed by someone, the first reaction is, “Oh, this production team is done for, it’s definitely not going to work out.”
People who bring in funding, whether they are actors or directors, are not expected to be competent; instead, they are seen as a hindrance.
Therefore, if both the director and the male lead were brought in with a backer, then the movie “Overnight Riches” is definitely unreliable and can almost be considered a flop.
Once a film is labeled as a flop, even if it is released in the future, the audience will watch it with a critical eye. To reverse the audience’s impression will be extremely difficult unless the quality is outstanding and the word of mouth is exceptionally good.
This is the stereotyping effect, also known as the stereotype.
Netizens are always eager for gossip. They quickly pushed the topic of “#JiaheEntertainmentIsFailing, Investing in Unknown Actors to Make Bad Movies#” onto the hot search list. Although it was not at the top of the list, it was still not a good sign.
Su Lingwei had just finished a meeting and came out of the conference room. Zhang Mingen showed her the hot search on Weibo, and the two discussed countermeasures as they walked to the office.
“In the comments below this hot search, I noticed that many accounts seem like they could be water army accounts. It seems like someone is deliberately trying to smear us,” Zhang Mingen analyzed.
Su Lingwei looked at the hot search and comments and felt the same as Zhang Mingen. It was clear that someone was intentionally targeting Jiahe Entertainment, hoping to kick them while they were down, preferably burying them so deep that they could never recover.
“Do you think the trending topic was orchestrated by someone?” After entering the office, Su Lingwei sat down behind her desk and pointed to the trending topics on Weibo.
Zhang Mingen had already had someone investigate who hired those internet water army. The information that came back seemed unrelated to anyone, but he still noticed some clues.
When Su Lingwei asked, he answered confidently, “It’s Yuefeng Entertainment. It’s probably related to Director Sun as well.”
Su Lingwei nodded, “That’s what I think too. Yuefeng Entertainment has always been our archenemy, and Director Sun went to work for them. In this situation, with such a good opportunity, if they don’t take advantage of it and give us a hard time, it would be a waste of their scheming.”
Zhang Mingen frowned slightly. Yuefeng Entertainment was truly despicable.
They had been chasing after Jiahe Entertainment for the past two years.
Jiahe Entertainment would become more and more difficult these two years, and it was not unrelated to Yuefeng Entertainment’s liking to play tricks and dig holes for Jiahe Entertainment.
“What should we do now? Should we contact someone immediately to remove the trending topic?” Zhang Mingen asked, taking out his phone to make a call.
Su Lingwei stopped him, “No need.”
Zhang Mingen looked at her in surprise, “Not going to remove the trending topic?”
Su Lingwei nodded, affirming, “No need to remove it. If you remove the trending topic now, it will only confirm the netizens’ speculations indirectly, and it will prove that we are really making a bad film.”
“What should we do then?” Zhang Mingen became anxious.
They were now at a disadvantage, and they really supported the new director and actors. If the audience thought they were not good and that it was a bad film, they wouldn’t be able to refute it.
While Zhang Mingen was troubled and worried, Su Lingwei smiled slightly, confidently saying, “I was just thinking about how to generate hype for our new movie, and now someone has given us a trending topic. Although it’s a negative one, isn’t it good that so many people now know that we are supporting new directors and actors to make movies? A negative trending topic also creates attention, which can be used to our advantage. As long as we make use of it, bad things can turn into good things!”
Everything has two sides. If there is a good side, there is also a bad side. The bad side of this matter has already been exposed. What they need to do now is to use the good side and expand its influence.
“Turning bad things into good things?” Zhang Mingen looked at Su Lingwei and asked, “President Su, what should we do?”
Su Lingwei smiled and said, “Go find He Juan, who is in charge of publicity.”
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