This director is vindictive.

The short video titled "Those Years We Tried to Exploit Chen Mo" has gone viral.

It's not that everyone is as lucky as the person who posted this short video, who has both cash and a house.

It's safe to say that anyone who wins both a million yuan in cash and a house across the entire country is extremely rare, practically one in a million.

But even if you're not as lucky as this poster, who hasn't taken advantage of Chen Mo's exploits?

And because there will be no more wool to fleece in the future, or at least no more such fat sheep to slaughter, many people sighed, which also resonated with them.

Of course, the poster's statement about squeezing Chen Mo's popularity after his retirement from the entertainment industry one last time has also become a meme.

"Holy crap, this video has surpassed 10 million views! The uploader has unlocked the 'ultimate money-grubbing' achievement! Is Chen Mo some kind of reincarnated freeloader? (doge)"

"Hilarious! Chen Mo wasn't just being fleeced, he was completely swindled like Ge You! A house, a car, and cash—he's practically achieved his life's KPIs for him. I suggest awarding him the 'Top Ten Most Touching Misunderstood People in China' trophy (hands clasped together)."

"I'm in a tiny, third-tier county, and people are breaking down their defenses! Back in the day, getting a 50 RMB phone credit coupon on the Chen Mo app was something to brag about for half a year, but this guy just skipped twenty years of hard work (sour grapes)."

"Fun fact: The last time I saw such a fat sheep was a whole roasted lamb in Inner Mongolia—now I finally understand what it means to 'the wool comes from the sheep, but the house comes from Chen Mo' (lighting a cigarette.JPG)."

"As a seasoned bargain hunter, I'm giving this a tearful thumbs up. The biggest bargain I've ever gotten in years was Chen Mo's 1999 RMB robot vacuum cleaner, and the winner ended up getting a three-bedroom apartment in a second-tier city?! (Earthquake in disbelief.JPG)"

"I suggest tattooing Chen Mo's ID number on his body; we absolutely can't lose track of this walking ATM! PS: Before he retires, could we please do one last push for a down payment on a house? Please!"

"Looking at my 'Ten Years of 'Wool-Hunting Achievement Award' certificate, it suddenly doesn't seem so appealing anymore. Other people get the golden fleece, we just get the 'one-cut' deals on Pinduoduo. Look at me, look at me, my smile betrays my exhaustion.JPG"

"Is it too late to switch careers and pursue 'Chen Mo Behavioral Research'? The return on investment is even more outrageous than Buffett's!"

"The top comment saying that the content creator found the traffic password is too naive—it was clearly Chen Mo who revealed the payment password himself!"

"Last wave! Last wave! You guys are just getting freebies, but Chen Mo is losing real money!!!"

The comments below kept going off like crazy.

Showing off the deals and benefits you've gotten over the years has suddenly become the real secret to gaining popularity!
Well, fans euphemistically call it: "Let's squeeze one last bit of Chen Mo's attention!"

The hashtag #ThoseYearsWeGotTheWoolProfitsTogether# also topped the trending list.

Meanwhile, a wave of "wool-pulling archaeology" competitions has swept across the internet.

Netizen @AStringOfNumbers posted a yellowed and wrinkled movie ticket stub for "Love is Not Blind". The edges of the ticket stub are oxidized and brittle, and the words "Singles' Day 2011.11.11" are handwritten on it.
Next to it was a brand new ticket stub for "Domestic Violence," with the gold lettering of the IMAX theater shining brightly.

They also included a handwritten comparison chart of how people "wool-pulled" (a Chinese idiom for exploiting loopholes for personal gain).

Each movie was accompanied by a different prize, including a snack gift pack, lipstick, cash, and the most bizarre one was a bottle of hair growth tonic, which was circled in red pen.

He captioned the post with a self-deprecating remark: "From a 20-year-old single dog to a 35-year-old balding dad, Chen Mo's exploitation has never stopped, while my hairline has never grown back!"

The moment the photo was posted, the comment section exploded with laughter:
"I suggest sending the ticket stub for 'Love is Not Blind' to the archaeological institute! The thickness of the patina suggests carbon-14 dating back to at least 2023 BC (just kidding)."

One netizen added: "The crease on the ticket stub of 'Love is Not Blind' is from crying for my first love back then; the crease on the ticket stub of 'Domestic Violence' is from crying for my mortgage now."

"Chen Mo has retired from the entertainment industry, your youth has ended, but your hair transplant installment payment has just begun (candle)"

"So, here's the question: what the heck is this hair growth tonic? When did Chen Mo give me this? And why is the poster still balding even after using this hair growth tonic? Is it some kind of counterfeit product?"

"OP, you're something else! This is hair growth tonic advertising for you? Pshaw, it's the other way around! Are you doing reverse marketing? I checked with AI, and none of the gifts Chen Mo gave me were related to any products like this!"

They searched high and low but couldn't find the movie ticket stubs from 2011. Finally, they printed out a screenshot of an Alipay statement from 2011, which clearly showed a purchase record of "Love is Not Blind" for 29.9 yuan.

He specially printed out the electronic voucher in color and framed it next to the brand-new IMAX version of the "Domestic Violence" ticket stub, with the caption: "Twelve years ago, when I used this movie ticket stub to exchange with a friend for Yang Mi's autographed photo, I never imagined that I could fleece Chen Mo, this fat sheep, for so long—I used him to chase stars during my adolescence, made money off him in middle age, and now I even have to rely on him to win a lottery for my retirement pension!"

"So, you must keep the ticket stubs; you can keep this for a lifetime!"

"No problem. This year, Chen Mo held a ticket stub lottery and suddenly remembered that he had stored the ticket stub from when he went to the movies with his first girlfriend in the Love Bank. Although the ticket stub could not be used for the lottery, it was still a memento, so he went to retrieve it. Unexpectedly, he ran into her again. It's just a pity that she is married and has a baby. Seeing her pregnant current girlfriend made me feel better, because I didn't lose to my rival from back then, but to reality!"

Chen Mo: If I had known, I should have printed "The final interpretation right belongs to the person concerned" on the ticket stub back then.

Another mother posted a picture of the "814 Welfare Festival" sticker on her stroller: "The milk powder can I won as a prize back then has been turned into a diaper changing container, and my child is in elementary school now and I'm still using it!"

A programmer posted a close-up of a keyboard: "This mechanical keyboard, won in a raffle for 'Mojin: The Lost Legend,' has been used to create three hit apps. The keycaps are worn down to resemble the profile of Chen Mo (with a comparison of light and shadow)."

College student @冤种本种 posted photos of his domestic violence ticket stub and supermarket receipt:

"I treated the whole dorm to a movie for a raffle, but I'm completely unlucky with winning anything. The only prize I got was a paper frog my roommate folded from the ticket stubs. Now they call me the 'Charity Gambler.'"

One netizen commented wittily: "Chen Mo: I profited from this, you lost out, and the movie theater made a killing!"

Suddenly, the entire internet was caught in a strange cycle of showing off "wool" (referring to deals or benefits).

Then many people were surprised to find that the area covered by Chen Mo's "wool" over the years was simply terrifying.

Some netizens even started a poll: Have you ever taken advantage of Chen Mo over the years?

More than 99% of the votes were "yes," with only a handful of "no" votes!
The number of voters reached over a million! What's even more interesting is that even people in the industry jumped on the bandwagon and "piggybacked" on the traffic.

A young director posted two IMAX ticket stubs for the movie "Domestic Violence" on his WeChat Moments late at night, with a caption directly complaining: "I've been studying Chen Mo's marketing tactics for the past few days. After studying Chen Mo's marketing tactics for the past ten years, I finally figured it out—when he throws money around, he's directly stuffing real money into the audience's pockets, while all the money we throw around goes to marketing accounts to buy their coffins!" (followed by three cracking emojis)
The comment section was instantly flooded with people from the industry—Director Zhang, the director of the short drama (selfie with dark circles under his eyes + close-up of ticket stub):
"I was still revising the thirty-eighth version of the storyboard at 3 a.m., and then I suddenly saw this giveaway announcement and it completely broke my defenses! Last time I paid for milk tea for the crew out of my own pocket, the producer slammed his fist on the table and yelled that it was over budget. Over budget my ass!!"

Producer Wang: "I'm thinking the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival should quickly add an 'Annual Generous Spender Award,' because even if we all pool our resources together, we can't beat Chen Mo's ticket stub raffle (followed by a dog head holding a rose emoji)."

Meanwhile, jokes are circulating wildly in film and television company internal groups: "Chen Mo retiring from the industry = the disappearance of year-end bonuses in the industry," and aspiring screenwriters are trembling with fear: "Is it too late to switch careers and become a lottery planner?"

Even a veteran film critic, known for his aloofness, commented: "While his peers are still calculating the ROI of ticket subsidies, Chen Mo has already gotten audiences to spontaneously calculate the 'annualized return on investment'—this is a truly impressive move!"

There's a reason why many of my peers envy me.

For example, Feng Dagang couldn't help but lament to his wife: "That bastard Chen Mo, you could say he's great at making movies, but his marketing strategy is even more famous than his movies. There's really no way to learn that!"

Xu Fan, seeing the overwhelming frenzy surrounding the "coupon-grabbing" topic, nodded in agreement, saying, "Even if he didn't become a director, but instead worked as a marketing strategist, he would definitely achieve great success!"

"What was that kid thinking? How old is he? He's already retired from the entertainment industry. It's such a waste of his talent!" Feng Dagang couldn't help but shake his head.

Xu Fan rolled his eyes at him and said, "He's the real genius! He's not short of money, and if we're talking about box office success, do you think any movie can surpass 'Ne Zha 2' right now?"

"No way. That film was a special product of perfect timing, location, and people. Even Chen Mo couldn't make a film with higher box office returns," Feng Dagang said, shaking his head.

"That solves it! Look, he wasn't short of money. If he continued making movies, he would just be repeating the past and it would be difficult to create new heights. But now that he's retired, everyone misses him! He's no longer in the film industry, but his legend lives on everywhere!"

Many people in the industry actually think the same way.

The main reason is that the box office of "Ne Zha 2" was too outrageous. Although everyone knows that it was a special product, even if you ask director Jiaozi if his next movie can reach the heights of this movie, his answer will definitely be no!

Chen Mo is already a top director in the film industry, and it's unlikely that he'll reach new heights at the box office. He's also never been particularly ambitious about awards, so it's understandable.

"Drawing his sword and looking around, his heart is filled with confusion"—that perfectly describes Chen Mo!
This wave of "exploiting loopholes through archaeology" has gone viral and has also prompted much reflection from professionals.

As we all know, the publicity and distribution of movies is taking up an increasingly larger proportion of the budget.

The cost of marketing and promotion for many films is much higher than the cost of production.

But no one has ever done what Chen Mo did.

Every time a movie is released, people are more excited about the movie's marketing and distribution strategy than the movie itself.

Even after Chen Mo retired from the entertainment industry, people still fondly remember the benefits brought by the promotional activities when his movies were released.

Various media outlets have stepped in to analyze the reasons behind this.

Even Film Weekly couldn't resist jumping in, publishing an exclusive commentary: From "Splashing Money" to "Splashing Sentiment"—Decoding the Dimensional Reduction of Chen Mo's Publicity Strategy!

While his peers were still calculating the ROI of trending topics, Chen Mo had already redefined "movie promotion and distribution."
Traditional film marketing is trapped in a single conversion logic of "traffic-box office": spending money to buy trending topics, hire online trolls, and lay out hard advertisements, ultimately falling into a vicious cycle of "audiences being harassed - film companies being criticized." Chen Mo, however, has spent fifteen years proving that true promotion is not "getting audiences to pay for the movie," but "making the movie create value for the audience."

This subversion of underlying logic has created the unique "Chen Mo phenomenon" in the Chinese film industry.

Recently, many people have been analyzing why such a bizarre character as "Chen Mo" has appeared in the Chinese film industry.

A director whose most talked-about achievements are not his films, or rather, not just his films.

It was his film marketing strategy, on the contrary.

So I specifically studied Chen Mo's marketing strategies over the years. As a marketing master, Chen Mo truly deserves the title!

Our research found that Chen Mo's greatest strength lies in building communities of shared interests.

Transform the audience from "leeks" to "shareholders"!
Publicity and distribution for other directors:
1. Budget allocation: 80% allocated to traffic acquisition (trending searches/advertorials/celebrity endorsements)

→ Audience satisfaction is negative ("Aesthetic sense is being forced upon them by capital again")
2. Emotional Account: Bombardment during the theatrical run → Disappears immediately after the theatrical run → Audiences feel betrayed by the "use and discard" mentality!
This is actually a common model for publicity and distribution across the entire film industry!

But what about Chen Mo?
You'll notice that his publicity campaigns are never about throwing money around and bombarding people with hype.

Often, it might start with just a Weibo post or an event.

Moreover, his hard-earned money was directly used to earn the audience's trust.

From the hard discounts on the live stream of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" to the 814 Welfare Festival, a total of over 20 billion yuan has been spent, creating the consumer mindset that "watching Chen Mo's movies = financial management"!

Meanwhile, as time went on, even the ticket stubs for Chen Mo's films began to become products with extremely high emotional added value.

Furthermore, the free economics allows countless viewers to profit from it, with real-life examples such as lottery winners buying houses and electric bikes lasting ten years, elevating commercial behavior into a narrative of a "community of shared future"!
Every one of his marketing campaigns is a precise and explosive attack on social emotions.

The traditional approach: following social trends (such as a surge in women-themed content), often results in becoming "opportunists exploiting pain points." Chen Mo's breakthrough lies in this: when platform coupons become like "advanced math problems," Chen Mo's "full cash payment" becomes an industry outlier.

Case Study: The 10 billion yuan gamble on "Ne Zha 2" resulted in a loss, but the money was still distributed!
The lottery for tickets to the film "Domestic Violence" rejects the "spend more to get a discount" tactic, and the winner's post of bank statements within 72 hours sparks positive word-of-mouth!
Meanwhile, offering millions in cash or houses as grand prizes provides ordinary people with an outlet for their fantasy of "changing their lives overnight." In contrast, a certain blockbuster film during the Spring Festival promoted itself as a "tribute to working people," only to be exposed as having lead actor salaries high enough to buy a building.
Chen Mo's lesson for our industry is that the essence of publicity is "altruism"!
Chen Mo's success is not simply due to his "money power," but rather to his profound understanding of the audience's psychology—while his peers treated films as commodities to be sold, he turned them into "emotional banks."

Those directors who were criticized should perhaps reflect on why audiences were more enthusiastic about Chen Mo's retirement from the industry than about the release of their own new films. The answer lies in a popular comment on "Those Years We Fleeced the Wool": "He made us believe that besides exploiting ordinary people, capital can also genuinely provide some benefits." (End of Chapter)