This director is vindictive.

Chapter 591 Chen Mo: Keep a low profile! Netizens: Let's start with a wave of trending topics!
In recent years, a thought-provoking phenomenon has emerged in the Chinese entertainment industry: audiences are becoming increasingly nostalgic in their aesthetic preferences. Unlike the past trend of new generations replacing older ones, veteran stars who have stood the test of time are now gaining more popularity. This trend is inextricably linked to the current chaotic, fast-paced star-making environment in the entertainment industry.

Today's celebrities are like fast-food products on an assembly line, mass-produced through capital packaging and trending topic marketing. A certain talent show can create more than a dozen so-called top stars in a summer, but these so-called stars often don't stay popular for more than three months—either they are exposed for sleeping with fans, or they crash and burn due to disastrous acting skills, and the worst off are directly replaced by the newest hit.

In contrast, those veteran artists who have endured the test of time, which one of them hasn't been working in the entertainment industry for over a decade?

The reason why the Seven Fairies suddenly became a trending topic because of "missing" them during their 30-day disappearance is actually due to this reason.

According to some media figures, their generation of stars represents the last glimmer of the era of "instant stars" and "fast-food star-making."

Many people have even noticed that the early traffic stars were far better than the current fast-food star-making stars.

At least they were popular for many years. Although some of them have had scandals or faded into obscurity, for many fans, at least they could support them through their youth, unlike now where it's impossible to support them anymore.

Ultimately, the "nostalgia trend" in the entertainment industry reflects the industry's distorted reality: when capital is keen on creating fast-moving consumer goods stars, audiences can only use nostalgia to express their desire for high-quality content.

Chen Mo said with a smile, "Today's celebrities are like instant noodles, they smell good but have no nutritional value; while real actors are like aged wine, the more you taste them, the better they taste."

"Hey, so you mean we're all getting old? Hmm?" Zhang Yuqi, that fierce woman, immediately became displeased upon hearing Chen Mo's words.

After all, the things women dislike most about being told about their figure and age are probably their age, right?

Back then, this tiger girl could argue with netizens for two hours just because someone said she was fat, frantically trying to prove that she wasn't fat.

Not to mention age.

The women all reacted in unison, looking at Chen Mo with dangerous eyes.

Chen Mo touched his nose and decisively admitted defeat.

“However, we’re all retiring soon, and we’re getting old, Mr. Chen. I’ve heard that men always prefer eighteen-year-olds. We’re getting old and our looks have faded. There are so many eighteen-year-old girls out there. Mr. Chen, why don’t you try something different?” Zhao Xiaodao silently revealed the sharp edge of his blade.

Chen Mo: "."

"Hey! Look at the trending topics! What's going on? These netizens are changing the subject way too fast!" Zhang Yuqi, the fierce woman, suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

Not only the women, but even Chen Mo became curious.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the newly trending topic was actually about him being mentioned.

A topic suddenly popped up on Weibo's trending topics:

#ChenMoSaveTheEntertainmentIndustry#
Chen Mo was also completely bewildered. What had I done?
He doesn't seem to have done anything, does he? Also, what's wrong with the Chinese entertainment industry? Why does it need to be saved by him?

He and his women quickly figured out what had happened.

This is also closely related to this year's film market.

Or perhaps it's closely related to the promotional strategies of several films this year.

Chen Mo suddenly became a trending topic because of a movie, a movie that has been controversial since the beginning of the year.

731!
This movie is arguably the most talked-about movie of the year, bar none.

The story begins with the current era of "massive marketing and distribution" in the film market.

As we all know, the film market has now completely entered the era of "spending money to buy box office", and this bad trend can be said to have started with "Hot Hot".

Back then, this movie was said to have cost more than 3 million yuan, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes that it couldn't have cost that much money at all—there were no big-scale special effects, no expensive outdoor scenes, and the actors' salaries weren't top-tier. Where did all the money go?

Everyone in the industry knows perfectly well that at least 2 million yuan has been spent on advertising and marketing! Annual subscriptions to trending topics, bombardment of short videos, and marketing campaigns across the entire internet are simply shameless.

It's worth noting that "The Wandering Earth," which also had a budget of 3 million yuan, was a sci-fi blockbuster with thousands of real special effects shots!

Starting with "Hot and Spicy," it can be said that they set a very bad example.

Because this movie actually became a huge hit! The key point is that this movie is an adaptation and remake.

As a result of effective marketing and promotion, the film grossed billions of dollars, making it a phenomenal success from a purely commercial perspective.

From then on, major film studios suddenly realized: they didn't need to make good movies at all, as long as they were willing to spend money on marketing and promotion!

For a period of time, although there were some bad domestic films that sold very well, they were nothing compared to what we have now.

Thus, everyone discovered the real secret to monetizing movie traffic: making movie promotion and distribution the main focus.

Thus we see that a certain romance film invested 1.5 million yuan, of which 1.2 million yuan was spent on buying trending topics and hiring online trolls.

A certain suspense film spent all its money on creating a "mind-bending" gimmick, but the actual plot was full of loopholes.

What's even more outrageous is a certain art film that, despite being a low-budget production, managed to push its marketing and distribution costs to be five times the production cost.

These days, when you walk into a movie theater, 8 out of 10 new films are just marketing hype. Audiences are like being fed junk food with artificial colors and flavors—it looks vibrant, but tastes nauseating.

The most terrifying thing is that it creates a vicious cycle: bad movies rely on marketing to rake in box office revenue, and then use the money to continue spending on marketing, while good movies don't have money to promote them, and audiences are forced to eat shit.

This is similar to the gutter oil phenomenon in the catering industry—the restaurants that first used gutter oil made a fortune, forcing honest people to follow suit. The film market is currently in such a dark moment of "bad money driving out good."

The movie "731" has been heavily hyped since the beginning of the year, and its marketing tactics can be described as magical realism.

The earliest rumor was that "this film will be banned because of its sensitive subject matter," and all sorts of conspiracy theories flew around, stirring up netizens' emotions.

To borrow a line from Gao Yuliang in the drama: "How can this be allowed?"

As expected, it successfully triggered the first wave of traffic, and the public was in a frenzy!

The most cunning move by the film's producers was setting the release date in July. This timing couldn't be more brilliant—it both capitalized on the sensitive timeframe and used the opportunity to create a melodramatic narrative of "release difficulties."

But setting a release date for a movie is itself part of the marketing strategy!
In fact, if you look into it, you'll find that the movie's release date wasn't actually that time. The claims of forced postponement and huge support are just the second stage of marketing.

When the film was indeed delayed, the reasons given by the production company were so compelling they could be found in a story magazine: obstruction by foreign forces, receiving 180 million death threats, enemy agents stealing the film, mercenaries assassinating the director, the director's tearful performance at the press conference—they were practically shouting through a megaphone, "If you don't watch it, you're not Chinese!"

Surprisingly, the industry seems to have little reaction to this anti-intellectual marketing tactic; all they seem to care about is box office revenue.

All I hear is discussions about whether this film will break 5 million, 10 billion, or 20 billion at the box office.

Even if the box office is achieved through hype, deleting reviews, and covering up the truth to trick unsuspecting viewers into going to the theater, they won't question it, as long as the box office targets are met.

This can be described as turning cold history into warm box office success, and perhaps in the future, people will even use this movie's marketing as a positive example to learn from.

But it's clear that this marketing tactic has exhausted the credibility of the entire film industry and depleted the audience's enthusiasm.

Audiences aren't stupid. They'll feel really uncomfortable when they find out the movie isn't what it was advertised at all, and their enthusiasm has been used as a money-making tool.

Some things, once over-consumed, can never be regained.

Coincidentally, "The Golden Photo Studio" also did similar promotion to "731" at the beginning. After all, both films expose atrocities, but at least the other film can be considered a sincere work.

In contrast, now that "731" has finished its run, this backlash is starting.

However, this movie doesn't stop at just these tricks; it's a real mix of truth and fiction.

Even now, the ratings on film review websites like Douban haven't been unlocked.

They also gave a consistent reason: they were maliciously bombarded with negative reviews!
Good heavens, this is absolutely ridiculous! They're completely treating netizens like fools.

Getting back to the main point, after saying so much, why was Chen Mo suddenly brought up?
Looking at the entire Chinese-language film industry, Chen Mo's publicity and distribution capabilities are nothing short of legendary. His title of "marketing genius" is well-deserved; every publicity campaign he launches is executed flawlessly.

However, unlike the promotional tactics of films such as "Hot Hot" or "731," which are misleading and misleading, this film's marketing is different.

Chen Mo's past classic publicity and marketing cases are still talked about today. The most important thing is that his publicity and marketing are all done in a fair and aboveboard manner.

From the earliest promotional campaigns for "Love is Not Blind" such as "Stories of Heartbreak," "Love Bank," and "Museum of Heartbreak," to the later cash-spraying promotions and giveaways, it's fair to say that each promotional campaign was more exciting than the movie itself, according to many netizens.

Of course, there is another point, which is the most remarkable: almost all of Chen Mo's works are of the same quality, with the lowest being above the passing grade.

In the words of netizens, "Chen Mo's movies are like time-honored brands; the packaging is eye-catching, but once you open it and take a bite—hey, it's really not just for show!"

This ability to both promote and sell genuine products is what the public misses most now.

Because of the Seven Fairies' retirement from the entertainment industry, Chen Mo's announcement of his impending retirement from acting has suddenly become a topic of renewed interest.

So, some netizens with a mischievous streak came up with the idea of ​​creating the hashtag "Chen Mo, save the entertainment industry," which surprisingly became a trending topic among the wounded netizens.

Chen Mo's "final film" has already generated a lot of buzz even before filming has started.

This level of popularity has made countless peers extremely envious and jealous.

(End of this chapter)