This celebrity became even more popular after being exposed of having multiple girlfriends
Chapter 236 - 225: Asking Wu Mu to Save the Day

Chapter 236: Chapter 225: Asking Wu Mu to Save the Day

"Not that their new car’s reputation has already tanked, but they still have the mind to hire a celebrity endorser?"

"And even if they did hire someone, why pick Wu Mu, an idol star with a history of collapsed buildings and not exactly a great reputation?"

Wang Hongtao seriously doubted whether this top-level public relations team had taken money from a rival company to sabotage him on purpose.

But unexpectedly, the elite PR team had their reasons.

The head of the PR team said,

"Mr. Wang, the reputation of your new car can be said to have completely gone down the drain, not only because the people who hate that anchor are spreading the news, but also many others who are joining in to show off their wealth are spreading it too. The spread is deep and wide under such fissile propagation."

"Online now there’s a trend forming where buying your cars is seen as taking a stance against the general public. In this situation, any attempts at apologizing or distancing yourself from that anchor are pointless. What’s most urgent now is to divert public attention away from this narrative, before focusing on clarifying and salvaging the situation."

It kind of made sense.

"But what does hiring Wu Mu have to do with any of this?"

"And if you have to hire a celebrity, why not hire one with a better reputation?"

Wang Hongtao didn’t understand the connection at all.

Their new car already had a bad reputation, and now they were hiring a celebrity with a similar reputation. Wouldn’t this just lead to more intense criticism?

The head of the PR team shook his head, "At this point, hiring another celebrity might indeed be less effective than hiring Wu Mu."

"Hiring anyone at this moment will be seen by the public as trying to smooth things over with money, appealing to other celebrities to take sides with us via financial incentives, which might actually exacerbate the conflict."

So hiring Wu Mu won’t exacerbate the conflict?

The head couldn’t say it wouldn’t exacerbate the situation completely, but could offer, "You see, despite Wu Mu’s seemingly bad online reputation, with insults everywhere and even being nicknamed ’Wu Dog’, a considerable part of it is actually good-natured teasing."

"In the minds of many, his image isn’t bad, and the demographics who view him favorably are highly coincidental with those involved in your scandal."

"By choosing Wu Mu, linking your new car to his reputation, you can mitigate the current conflict to some extent and lessen its severity."

For the first time hearing such a strategy, Wang Hongtao could only admit he didn’t understand, but was nonetheless deeply impressed.

And there were even more reasons from the PR team.

For instance, Wu Mu has always been seen as a person of good character and personality. Hiring him might make the public think that if Wu Mu is willing to endorse them, maybe there’s not such a big problem with the car after all.

And another point was...

"Hiring Wu Mu can also serve as a great distraction, drawing fire away from you."

"Wu Mu... he has many anti-fans and adversaries. By dragging him into this, his anti-fans, without any prompting from you, will help shift the focus onto Wu Mu, making you a secondary target."

Wang Hongtao didn’t understand the other points too well, but he got the last one.

After thinking for a while, he decided, "Hire him!"

...

After listening to Shi Wu’s briefing, Wu Mu pondered for a moment.

He understood why Shi Wu didn’t suggest that he take the endorsement.

Indeed, it was a tricky job.

Objectively speaking, the car company did seem to have been falsely implicated.

From their immediate apology and their distancing from the anchor, it was clear they were involved unwittingly.

But at this point, a trend had already formed, making apologies or distancing futile.

Public sentiment, once agitated, is not reasonable.

They had been cast as the opposition of the vast majority of "poor folks," and it had already become somewhat of a stance issue.

Added to this was the multitude of people joining in for the ride, who really didn’t care about the actual events, just showing off that they weren’t lacking money, boasting about their savings and pairing it with copy that the poor can’t afford cars, continuing to spread the sensation.

Whoever took on this endorsement was asking for trouble.

Although the pay was good, in reality, it affected the celebrity’s own commercial value, and being associated with such an issue meant risking being dragged into it too.

Other stars would certainly dare not take on such a risky job at this time.

But Wu Mu... he didn’t care. A couple of insults didn’t bother him.

It wouldn’t affect him.

While others feared criticism affecting future commercial value, he wasn’t nearly as worried.

After using the Performance Card, instead of affecting his commercial value, it might even highlight it more.

The more untouchable the project, the more his "performance ability" would stand out.

Wu Mu thought he could take this job.

Of course, the main reason was that the car itself had no issues and the car company itself wasn’t at fault; it was just implicated unintentionally.

Helping out this kind of car company had no moral objections for him.

"And the name, ’Hui Teng Yi Qi’, sounds kind of familiar... haven’t I heard it before somewhere?"

Wu Mu felt like he had heard the name of this car company before.

After some thought, he suddenly remembered.

"Isn’t this the company where Su Meng is interning?"

Su Meng, someone he met early on at Star Agency and considered an old friend, occasionally chatted with him on WeChat.

He recalled hearing from her once that she had been interning at Hui Teng Yi Qi since the summer break.

Remembering why the name sounded familiar, Wu Mu thought for a moment, picked up his phone, and found Su Meng’s WeChat, "Are you interning at Hui Teng Yi Qi?"

On the other end of WeChat, it seemed Su Meng was also using her phone at the time, as she replied in seconds.

A line of ellipses appeared on the phone screen.

Wu Mu chuckled slightly, "You got affected by that incident in your company, too?"

Su Meng continued with ellipses, "...the product line is under my responsibility."

Wu Mu was taken aback, "You’re an intern?"

Su Meng: "Yep, the intern vice president of the New Energy Department."

Ah?

Wait, vice presidents have interns now?

Wu Mu smelled the oh-so-familiar scent of a born-with-a-silver-spoon pup.

"Is this your family’s company?"

The Weibo status kept showing "typing" for a while, and with a seemingly hesitant reply came, "Kind of."

Wu Mu clicked his tongue, realizing he seemed to know quite a few children of fortune.

If they weren’t official second generations like Lin Qingyue, then they were super-rich second generations like Liu Lan and Su Meng.

Since he was already planning on taking the gig, and it also happened to be a friend’s family business,

there wasn’t much for Wu Mu to hesitate about.

"Remember to treat me to a meal later," he sent the message to Su Meng.

Su Meng: "?"

Wu Mu looked on and offered no explanation, simply turning to Shi Wu beside him, "We can take this endorsement."

Shi Wu was visibly shocked, "Boss, there’s no benefit in taking this project."

"This kind of project, it looks like there’s a lot of money, but it’s really about staking your reputation on their new car, and it’s super easy to provoke backlash."

Shi Wu thought Wu Mu hadn’t fully grasped the implications, oblivious to the potential dangers.

Such an endorsement was clearly an invitation to be bashed.

Nowadays, with the social media storm already brewing, even top-level celebrities with stellar reputations were likely to get slaughtered for taking on something like this.

"It’s fine," Wu Mu waved off the concern.

A little bashing wouldn’t hurt him, and it might not even happen at all.

Looking forward to using the Performance Card later, he figured the system would probably start with the company’s reputation.

After all, with the way the car was getting slammed all over the internet, if the reputation issue wasn’t resolved first, the Performance Card might not be redeemable.

"Just contact the car manufacturer," he said.

What else could Shi Wu do but be the tool man he was meant to be?

Still, this wasn’t over.

"Their offer is too low. Asking me to come extinguish fires for them at this time, forty million is not enough."

Taking the endorsement was one thing, but one must still demand their due fee.

"Tell them to bump it up to sixty million, non-negotiable."

Sixty million...

Internally, Shi Wu smirked at his boss’s extravagant asking price; this amount could’ve hired Mo Mo.

But since Wu Mu had decided, he had no choice but to go negotiate with HuiTeng FAW.

Then, it was unclear if the big car company was really just throwing money around or if Wang Hongtao was truly desperate.

Wu Mu’s new quote was sent, and in no time, they actually agreed to it.

What’s more, they were incredibly eager, pushing to sign the contract and make the official announcement ASAP.

Urged by Wang Hongtao, the two parties touched base that very day to finalize the new endorsement contract.

...

That evening, at 8 o’clock.

HuiTeng FAW’s New Energy Department’s official Weibo, in the midst of a PR crisis and getting bashed left and right, posted a new update.

HuiTeng FAW (New Energy): "As RuiFeng sets sail to glory, we are extremely honored to have Mr. Wu Mu as the product ambassador for our new energy vehicle, the RuiFeng. Thank you, Teacher Wu Mu. @Wu Mu Evolved."

"????"

Undoubtedly, the users below who had been berating the car company were completely baffled by this new statement.

What’s the meaning of this?

At such a critical time, instead of managing the crisis, they’re hiring a new endorser?

Idiots, are they planning to sway the public opinion by getting a celebrity endorsement?

That’s a pipe dream!

Let’s see, we’ll bash the new endorser along with you!

Everyone was curious to see who was so blind as to stand against the public by taking on such an endorsement.

And then they saw... our old acquaintance, Wu.

Accompanying the official announcement, the number of comments under Wu Mu’s Weibo post skyrocketed.

"No way, Wu, have you lost your mind? Endorsing HuiTeng’s new car? Don’t you know what kind of shape they’re in because of the backlash?"

"It’s a bit disgusting, Wu. Are you just okay with taking any dirty money? Endorsing a car company that mocks everyone as being poor?"

"What a scumbag, how much did they pay you? Is it worth losing your very soul over?"

"I used to think you were okay, at least with proper principles, but now it seems you’d toss your face aside for money too."

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ps: This Chapter is 3,000 words, and there’s another one with 3,000 words, an increase of a thousand words.

Didn’t take leave on my birthday today, still toiling away writing, guys could you please throw in a monthly ticket as encouragement?

Woohoo, cast a monthly ticket to save the child, the child really needs it!