Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 125: "Nuclear Weapons" Are Not That Fun
"Okay, I understand. I will talk to Mr. Meng."

In the office of Arclight Films, Hua Yan hung up the phone and looked at Meng Bai beside her and said, "Brother Meng, the reporter Lin who had been cooperating with us before contacted us and said that he had also seen a lot of articles and posts on the Internet that slandered us."

"Oh, you're the Xiao Lin from Banana Entertainment, right?" Meng Bai said.

Hua Yan corrected, "It's Orange Entertainment."

"Hey, this pile of fruits." Meng Bai said, "If you want to thank them for me, just tell them that if you need any interviews in the future, we will definitely cooperate."

Hua Yan responded and made a note in her notebook, then looked up and asked, "Brother Meng, "Pendulum" is about to start airing. There are so many slanderous rumors and news on the Internet. Don't we need to do something?"

In fact, long before Xiao Lin discovered those "highly repetitive" articles, Leshi.com and Arclight Films had already received risk warnings about the relevant public opinion.

Not only on public accounts, but also on news platforms that mainly use pictures and texts, such as Toutiao, UC, NetEase, and Sohu, are their main battlefields.

In comparison, platforms like Weibo are not so bad. After all, you can watch videos and put links here, and just post the original video to clarify the matter.

"Besides reporting these articles to these platforms, there's nothing we can do." Meng Bai shook his head and said, "The show will start in two days. Their actions don't have any practical effect. They just disgust us."

He knew in his heart that this wave of inexplicable smear campaign, just like the last "online drama censorship" dispute, was caused by those traditional media.

The Spring Festival is only one month away, and the "Censorship System Reform Meeting" will be held one month after the Spring Festival. They are stuck at this point and are trying to "put on some eye drops" for the online drama.

"But this kind of out-of-context stuff, even if it is censored, the censors will know what it is about after reading a few more paragraphs. What's the use of it?" Hua Yan asked puzzledly.

Meng Bai sneered: "Some things can't be solved just by explaining them clearly. On the contrary, even if it's not your fault, as long as the heat appears, you will still be dealt with."

You are the boss of a large company, and someone posts online a seemingly inappropriate behavior of an ordinary employee at the grassroots level of the company. Not only does it have a huge impact on the company's reputation, but a bunch of netizens also start to stare at your company and find fault with it every day.

At this time, would you seriously figure out what is right and wrong, then go online and confront netizens to convince them one by one, or would you directly fire the employee and send a notice to calm the heat?

Any choice is possible, but based on Meng Bai's understanding of the relevant departments above, they usually choose the latter.

Don't tell me what the original drama is like or what the original intention is. Just don't film it in the future.

"Then we just watch?" Hua Yan asked.

"It's definitely not enough to just look at it." Meng Bai thought for a while and said, "I'll go to Leshi.com later and ask Brother Liu to talk to these news platforms in the name of Leshi to see if they can directly delete articles like this."

"Huahua, please contact the legal department and use the official WeChat account to make an announcement, saying that we have recently discovered organized smear campaigns, and express our protest attitude. Finally, say that we will make the other party bear the relevant legal responsibilities."

"Okay." Huahua responded, and then asked, "Will this really end up in a lawsuit?"

"Look at the situation. We can find a few influential articles and pick out the ones we don't like and report them to the police. This can serve as a warning to others." Meng Bai said.

After thinking for a few seconds, Meng Bai muttered to himself, "We can't just let Huguang handle the situation." Then he looked for Hua Yan and said, "You should also contact similar water army businesses and give them some new business."

……

This batch of smear articles on the Internet did play a certain role. There were many more negative and abusive comments under the related publicity of "Soul Ferry" and "Red Ling".

However, fans of the "Pendulum" show and some passers-by who had watched the original video were completely confused when they first saw these comments, and thought that the other party had come to the wrong place.

But they soon discovered that these people were not in the wrong place, but were deceived by those smear articles. Many fans immediately became rumor refutation ambassadors, and began to explain under similar comments and recommend them to watch the original video.

Some passers-by who saw the explanation half-believed it and watched the original video, and immediately realized that they had been fooled. Some remained silent, while others turned against it.

But not everyone will listen to advice. There are still a group of people who have preconceived ideas and do not listen to explanations or read the clarifications, and stubbornly continue to hold their own views.

Liu Jun also told Meng Bai that the backend of Leshi.com has received a lot of complaints and reports recently. Although they have all been deleted as spam, some people may continue to report them.

"It's okay. Individual reports are not a big deal. The 'Review and Reform Meeting' will be held in two months. During this period, the higher-ups generally won't take any measures in advance. As long as we can hold on until 'Soul Ferry' is finished broadcasting, we can let them do whatever they want with us at that time." Meng Bai comforted Liu Jun.

"You bunch of idiots, you guys make your TV series and we make our web series, and we should keep our distance from each other. But you insist on making trouble. It's really fucking stupid!" Liu Jun cursed harshly.

Although they still haven't figured out who is behind this, they all blamed the satellite TV station.

In fact, deliberate smearing is not that infuriating. Although the means are despicable, at least they are within the limit.

However, guiding the public to lodge complaints and reports is clearly crossing the line!

"No, we can't just take the beating like this." Liu Jun said: "This is not our only business. I will contact several other platforms to see if we can do something together."

"Don't worry, brother. How can we be the only ones to get beaten?" Meng Bai calmly drank a sip of tea. "Don't worry. Since they have used an unconventional trick first, we must be prepared for revenge from the same kind."

Hearing this, Liu Jun asked in confusion: "What are you going to do?"

Meng Bai smiled and said, "There's a saying that a double defeat is better than a single defeat. Don't they like to play 'nuclear weapons'? Okay, then let's all do it together."

……

The day before the broadcast of "Soul Ferry", when many fans and viewers were still trying to dispel rumors, the online trend suddenly changed.

On Weibo and other major platforms, there have been a large number of news and posts that have been finding fault with various popular TV series in the past two years. Regardless of the subject matter, platform, or format, they have been specifically looking for problems in these TV series under the banner of protecting "youth health."

Costume dramas are "spreading nihilism", idol dramas are "spreading money worship", action dramas are "inducing violent impulses", and youth dramas are "promoting premature love"...

This wave of trend came quickly and dispersedly. Almost most of the popular TV series in recent years were evaluated, but there was no concentrated target of attack.

Some dramas that have already aired are not so bad, and the discussion is not that heated. But the dramas that are currently on the air are in a bad situation, and many of them have been distorted by this trend.

The first to be affected is the recently popular "The Empress of China" on Mango TV. When the show was first aired, it was on the hot search list because of its large-scale costumes. At that time, many people had already reflected that the show was suspected of "playing a gray area".

This time, not only was the point of "exposing styling" brought up again, but the "horse shock" scene in the recently aired episode also set off public opinion on the entire network.

Compared to online dramas that are still being polished in a small circle, this New Year's Eve drama starring Bingbing and produced by Mango TV is several levels higher in popularity and heat.

Because of this, the drama immediately attracted a large number of netizens to watch the fun.

Of course, "The Empress of China" is not the only one. In addition to CCTV, several other satellite TV stations are also broadcasting popular dramas that have also aroused a lot of attention.

Amidst this chaos, the much anticipated "Soul Ferry 2" finally started airing.

(End of this chapter)