This celebrity is overly enthusiastic!

Chapter 135 How Should Celebrities Do Charity?
After receiving a few days of training on common sense about American society, the project team members boarded an international flight to Culver City, California, before SARS completely caused widespread panic.

Columbia Pictures' headquarters and studios are located there, and most of them will live and study there for more than six months, or even a year.

Chen Yuan joined them on this journey filled with bitterness, challenges, and honor.

Just one month after the project officially started, when everything was in a state of chaos and headaches, Chen Yuan's biggest financial backer ran into trouble!

Sony Group announced a net loss of 1111 billion yen (approximately US$950 million) for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2002, its largest quarterly loss in eight years, triggering unprecedented stock price volatility.

After the earnings report was released, Sony's stock price plummeted by a quarter within two days, once falling to a 7-year low!

Sony's stock price plunge triggered a collective sell-off in Japanese high-tech stocks, causing a sharp drop in the Nikkei index.

After the dot-com bubble burst, Sony's market value plummeted by 80% from its peak of nearly $2000.

The company's already declining image plummeted after this incident, which the media dubbed the "Sony shock," and it was subjected to fierce abuse from numerous investors who had been badly burned.

Nobuyuki Idei went from being the "most successful CEO" to being known as the "worst CEO".

Chen Yuan also suffered some undeserved misfortune. Some investors in China who were superstitious about him and had the ability to speculate in US stocks built up positions immediately after he announced his cooperation with Sony last year, and were then buried alive!

It's really both laughable and infuriating. He himself only bought Changhong stock when "Legend of Seven Swords" was about to air. These people are just too unreasonable.

It's good to learn from this experience, so that people won't blindly follow the trend and there won't be any real "Chen Yuan concept stocks" that could cause stock market turmoil in the future. Such things are really not a good thing for him.

Some members of the team were worried that the "Edge Walker" project would also be affected, but Chen Yuan was very confident that not only would it not be affected, but he would receive even stronger support!
The reason is simple: the "Sony shock" exposed a whole host of problems for Sony, and the company will definitely increase its efforts to transform and pay more attention to untapped emerging markets.

And right now, the biggest emerging market is China!

Just as Chen Yuan had predicted, within two days Sony directly commissioned Metaverse to produce a series of television commercials.

Furthermore, they spent 20 million yuan on him to endorse the VAIO series of laptops.

Binbin and the company's artists have also received endorsement and advertising contracts for various products, such as digital cameras, televisions, and audio-visual playback equipment.

Chen Yuan is now one of the most influential young stars in China.

If Sony's previous support for him in making "The Edge Walker" was simply an acknowledgment of his talent and a small gamble, then...
Sony now genuinely hopes that Chen Yuan can succeed and somewhat revive Sony's plummeting brand reputation, so they have started to increase their investment in Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan did not request an increase in the budget when the project was just launched. Instead, he asked Sony to send some product design talents from their various departments.

The stated purpose was to allow Sony products to better integrate into Night City, a futuristic sci-fi metropolis.

In reality, even Chen Yuan and the creative team at Columbia Pictures didn't know how to advertise for Sony.

It's true that Chen Yuan has a ton of art inspiration in his head, but he's genuinely not good at integrating Sony product design elements into various parts of Night City.
If they didn't want the city of Night to be plastered with blatant advertisements and the Sony logo, then they had no choice but to have the design talents from various Sony departments create their own designs based on Chen Yuan's requirements.

A good client should learn to meet their own requirements.

Sony quickly agreed to provide Chen Yuan with a group of personnel without any haggling.

The situation in China has also been turbulent lately. SARS caused widespread panic, with various chaotic phenomena such as spreading rumors, price gouging, and panic buying of masks, disinfectants, and certain traditional Chinese medicines. However, in the face of this disaster, there have also been many moving and inspiring stories.

The urgently needed medical supplies, including ventilators and monitors worth tens of millions of RMB, which Chen Yuan had pre-ordered to enhance the treatment capabilities of medical institutions, arrived at Tianjin Port in early April.
The entire amount was donated directly to the health department in one go.

This is the largest single contribution in the fight against the epidemic to date, and it is also the most needed batch of supplies at the most critical moment of the epidemic. For a time, he received continuous praise and commendation from all sectors of society.

While Chen Yuan was working hard abroad, Binbin in China was not only practicing her spoken English, physical movements, and firearms training, but she also wanted to contribute to the nationwide fight against the epidemic.

When it comes to celebrities doing charity work, the event that left a deep impression on Chen Yuan was the Bazaar Charity Night.

The initial intention of this activity was good; it likely started with the SARS outbreak in 03.

Celebrities donate some of their own bags, jewelry, or other collectible items for guests to bid on, with all proceeds going to charity.

However, the further it went, the more off it felt, turning into a fame and fortune arena disguised as charity, combining celebrity red carpets, performances, live auctions, charity car pledging, online live streaming, and charity sales.

Many dramatic events in the entertainment industry occur at the Bazaar Charity Night.

It's a real shame to hand over an event that could generate so much traffic and public goodwill to a fashion magazine that only knows how to fawn over Europe and America. It should be handled by his Metaverse!
Metaverse is now hailed as an industry leader by many people both inside and outside the industry, so it should no longer lie low, but should take responsibility and do things that truly reflect its leading position.

Celebrities, fashion, and charity—at this time of widespread anxiety, this event, spearheaded by Metaverse and with strong support from higher authorities, combines these elements.
Not only did it provide support to a large number of professionals and help Metaverse improve its event processes, but it will also be broadcast directly on CCTV-3's variety channel.

With CCTV's endorsement, the invitations sent out by Metaverse carry even more weight.
Except for those who were simply too busy to attend, all the other A-list and B-list celebrities who received the invitation accepted it and will bring their own collections to the event.

With the presence of big stars, various media outlets were also attracted, but due to the special timing, the scale of media coverage was limited.

Many film and television industry friends, advertisers, and business owners who have good cooperation with Metaverse will also be coming.

On April 6, the Metaverse Celebrity Charity Night, which had been in preparation for nearly a month, was held at the Capital International Hotel.

Walking the red carpet isn't popular in China now; it only became fashionable around 2010 when Fan Binbin's red carpet appearance abroad caused a sensation and garnered widespread attention.

It eventually developed into an indispensable iconic event and mature industrial segment of the entertainment industry.

Now, this activity is being promoted ahead of schedule by Metaverse.

Although the number of media reporters was limited, the uncle persuaded most fans and passersby to leave.

Binbin wore a black and white checkered off-shoulder dress, cinched with a white belt, and carried a black bag.

Her neat short hair complemented her bright makeup, with striking red lips. Her elegant and confident demeanor, exuding both fashionable charm and dignified poise, made her a refined and dazzling focal point.

When she emerged from the train carriage and was the first to step onto the red carpet, the fans' piercing screams instantly echoed throughout the venue, and all sorts of cameras and microphones were fired at her relentlessly.

Fan Binbin smiled and greeted the reporters and fans around him, his steps steady and his eyebrows raised.

As this is an important event showcasing the strength of the metaverse, Fan Binbin put a lot of effort into preparing for it.

With Chen Yuan gone, she is the face of Yuan Universe. If she can't even handle this small matter, how can she become Chen Yuan's right-hand woman who can solve his problems in the future?
(End of this chapter)