The author | Maureena
Editor| Li Chunhui
"Regret. Years ago I ignored the ice pier, and years later the ice pier made me unable to climb high." In just a few days, the winter Olympic mascot ice pier has become a new top stream, and any virtual idol and Ling Na Belle must stand on the side. On February 6 alone, the ice pier won 16 Weibo hot searches, and even the mother of the hard candy jun was inquiring where to buy the ice pier.
Queuing and restricting purchases are the bustle in front of the stage, and the licensed manufacturers and retailers behind them have also ushered in a wave of good. Yuanlong Yatu, which fell in stock prices due to poor performance in 2021, relied on the flow of ice piers to open the market on February 7. On February 9, the Yuanlong Yatu bid once again rose and fell. Others, such as ANTA Sports, Cultural Investment Holdings, Wangfujing, China Sports Industry, etc., have also seen their stock prices rise to varying degrees.
But today's star-making process we are familiar with, first red to purple, then purple to black. The faster the red is and the higher it is praised by the masses, the greater the possibility of public opinion rebounding. Less than ten days after the explosion of popularity, related topics such as #Ice Pier Collapse House quietly appeared, and even triggered order cancellation.
When it became popular, it was constantly compared with Disney's "female star" Lingna Belle, and the "collapsed room" of the ice pier was also the same script of Lingna Belle - related to the so-called "inner tank".
Ice piers, no speaking
On February 8, the talented girl Gu Ailing was in a brave state and won the gold medal in the women's big jump in freestyle skiing for the Chinese delegation. At the award ceremony, Gu Ailing held a golden ice pier and was jokingly called the famous scene of the top stream meeting by netizens. The heat of the ice pier is also heated up by this gold medal.
At about 8 p.m., in accordance with the practice of large-scale events, reporters often communicate with athletes through connections and on-site interviews. No one expected that this online interview would become the scene of a large collapsed house on the ice pier.
A male reporter, dressed in an ice pier doll suit, asked questions to freestyle skier Yang Shuorui on behalf of the audience. When the middle-aged male voice with a rich Beijing accent was emitted from the body of the ice pier, many netizens immediately said that they were "down" and "unacceptable".
More catastrophic scenes are yet to come. The male reporter also took off the ice pier doll suit during the show, revealing his True Face of Lushan, "this impact is no less than Elizabeth's exposed leg hair."
Disillusioned netizens expressed their dissatisfaction by canceling the order of the ice pier, and the snow that was originally crushed by the ice pier ushered in a batch of wall climbing powder.
This is not enough. Another social platform host said: Are you not curious about the handsome guys in the ice pier, and expose the appearance of the under the skin of the ice pier. In addition, the Little Red Book also has a picture of the staff under the skin of the ice pier, saying that "completing the task" has come to a self-exposure. Netizens are not cold to the fact that the skin is a handsome man, but instead call out "climbing".
This is easily reminiscent of the recent Lingna Belle collapse incident. The little fox actor was criticized for "dishonesty" for showing a clear personal preference when interacting with tourists. In the eyes of netizens, the collapse of the ice pier this time is even more serious.
Lingna Belle was wrong in violating the Disney doll's rule of treating every visitor equally, but the actor at least did not break the fairy tale dream. The moment when the reporter took off the ice pier doll suit and self-claimed under the skin was a real destruction of many people's cute fantasies about the ice pier.
"Two words: disillusionment." A netizen who was still inquiring where to grab the ice pier on the morning of February 8 told The Hard Candy Jun that when she heard the cute body of the ice pier make a middle-aged man's voice, her shopping impulse disappeared. Official information shows that the ice pier is a juvenile panda, even if you have to talk, at least find a child. "As soon as I see the ice pier now, I think of the middle-aged uncle's voice, and I can't get my hands on it."
Of course, people know that the ice pier is a created image, but this does not mean that reporters or staff can directly explode themselves with a big grin. "I know in my heart that it's fake, and there's a big difference between being told directly that it's fake. It was a naked way of telling me that the ice piers didn't exist, and I had a feeling of being trampled on. ”
In addition, some netizens pointed out that as the largest tap water of the ice pier, Japanese journalist Tsujioka Yoshido also showed a "my world is disillusioned" expression when he saw the staff who played the ice pier and held the doll holster. "Anyone who sees what their favorite doll looks like under the skin will react this way."
Probably because of this, the International Olympic Committee stipulates that Olympic mascots are not allowed to be gendered or speak. However, at present, it seems that "peeling skin" is only a small storm, and the ice pier can also survive the wind and rain like Lingna Belle, and the accumulation of experience is more professional.
Whoever held the red ice pier
Some people are puzzled: the Olympic mascot just opened his mouth to speak, as for? However, as a symbol of the rise of domestic IP and even cultural output, we require a little professionalism, and it is really the deep responsibility of love.
As early as 2019, the ice pier has been introduced, but at that time, this big-eyed panda did not receive much attention, and even until the Spring Festival holiday, Olympic licensed stores such as Wangfujing were all looking like a door-to-door bird. Until the appearance of japanese journalist Tsujioka Yoshido, the ice pier began to sprint towards the top stream.
On February 1, Tsujioka Yoshido introduced the ice pier in the morning morning newspaper in the tone of a fan, which attracted the attention of some Chinese netizens. It was soon discovered that Tsujioka had purchased a large number of ice piers around the mound, and someone had sorted out these contents and posted them to Weibo. Such a successful cultural export case already has its own traffic, not to mention japan, which has long exported two-dimensional culture to us, and Tsujioka Yoshido's fandom behavior has attracted a lot of attention for the ice pier.
With the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, the ice pier has become an exchange ambassador between athletes and dignitaries from all over the world, and the prince of Monaco has personally made the ice pier and foreign athletes have taken photos with the ice pier on the social platform, which is an important thrust for the popularity of the ice pier.
Overseas journalists, politicians and athletes pursue the ice piers, just like the influence of KOLs on ordinary people, and people will unconsciously follow suit. Another thrust of the ice pier that has spread across the land of Shenzhou in a short period of time stems from the netizens' various ice piers.
During this time, people's social topics mostly revolve around the Winter Olympics, in addition to discussing the event itself, playing with the ice pier to create a stem and making memes has become another way for ordinary people to feel the atmosphere of the Winter Olympics. We can't reproduce the athlete's gold-winning moment, but it's not a problem to make a homemade folk version of the ice pier or make a few memes. Hard Candy Jun has several friends who are like this into the pit, "originally did not think it was cute, recently everyone is sending ice piers, the more you look at the more cute, can't help but chop your hands."
On social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Station B, it is even more self-satisfied to post a rare ice pier. Even the circle of friends after the resumption of work is also affected by this, and it is not a big deal to post a dozen or so starting profits, and it is the most beautiful cub in the circle of friends to dry out a bunch of ice piers in one breath.
Affected by this social mood, online and offline ice pier rush to buy. In addition, coinciding with the Spring Festival holiday, manufacturers have stopped work and reduced production, making it difficult to find a cargo for the ice pier. And people have a herd mentality, waiting in line for eight hours, pre-sale seconds and other related events and scalpers in it, which stimulates the frenzy of "everyone loves the pier".
The explosion of the ice pier even gave birth to the "Cyber Ghost City". Due to the particularity of the ice pier, second-hand platforms such as idle fish have banned related transactions, but this does not prevent some people from taking risks. Hard Candy Jun learned that every three or four o'clock in the morning, a number of mysterious shops will appear on the second-hand platform, and the store can buy ice piers and Olympic badges. After dawn, the shops were closed as if they had never been seen before.
Interestingly, in this rush to buy ice piers, the most sought after are dolls and handmade. In fact, apart from the scarcity of badges and commemorative coins due to limited quantities, there is no explicit indication that the limited number of Olympic licensed goods, such as doll handmade, is not allowed to be starved marketing. In other words, when workers return to work, the situation of a pier is quickly alleviated. But no one wants to be the last "unfashionable" person to get the ice pier.
Mascot self-cultivation
Although there are some twists and turns, the operation idea of the ice pier is still worthy of recognition. It should be known that in addition to the mascot Panda Panpan of the 90s, who is considered a national darling, the cyclamen of the Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships in 1995, the Wufuwa of the 08 Olympic Games, and the erhu eggs (砳砳矷) of the 14-year Nanjing Youth Olympic Games have all been criticized to varying degrees as "too ugly".
The success of the ice piers has to do with their pleasing enough shape. The panda is endemic to China and enjoys a high reputation in the world, and through decades of "panda diplomacy", the formula of "panda = cute = China" has long been established in the minds of people around the world. Among the five Fuwa at that time, Panda Jingjing was also the most popular one.
If it's just cute, it's not enough to make the ice piers top streams. The popularity of the ice pier satisfies the patriotic feelings of the Chinese people, especially the young people. The love and pursuit of ice piers by foreign athletes and politicians is a victory for cultural export. The small ice pier is the mascot of the Winter Olympics and a symbol of China's national strength and ability to spread to the outside world.
Compared with the little fox and the star dew, the ice pier is not just a domestic IP, it represents a sense of national honor. "Since they are all dolls, why don't you support our own ice piers?" Of course, the richness around the ice pier also provides a choice space for buyers with different needs.
On the way to the top of the ice pier, the rapid feedback from the official public opinion and the good use of social media are gratifying. From the perspective of timeline, after the ice pier was hotly discussed by the pursuit of Japanese journalists, the probability of the ice pier showing its face in the official platform and related content rose sharply.
"500 hot searches a year, pigs can be red." Although this statement was ridiculed by Koreans in the past, it also proved the importance of Weibo hot search. The frequent hot search of ice piers is the credit of tap water, and it is indispensable to the official help. Living in hot searches has made the ice pier a social topic, and in the discussions, it has completed the transformation from the Olympic mascot of commodity attributes to the social currency of emotion.
The peeling incident has raised a wake-up call for the refined operation of Guochuang IP. Disney does not allow undercrowding staff to speak, nor does it allow staff to take off their doll costumes in front of the public. This practice was once denounced by the Chinese people as "capital sucking blood", but after experiencing the ice pier uncle sound incident, I have to admit that Lao Di thinks long-term.
Not to mention the problem that the ice pier speaks contrary to the regulations of the Olympic Committee, unlike the older generation of mascots such as Fuwa, the operation idea of the ice pier is closer to the current IP operation of the Duffy family. That being the case, it is necessary to abide by the rules of the game that have been passed. To put it bluntly, the reason why the ice pier collapsed was because the operator did not know enough about young people.
They may think that Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf can also speak, and Wufuwa also has her own animated movie. Everyone likes the ice pier, so let the ice pier open to talk and communicate with everyone, or tell everyone that there is a big handsome guy under the skin, is not the icing on the cake and further increase the heat?
This is the idea of the previous generation.
Young people have feelings for virtual IP, and even spend thousands of dollars in line for it, because virtual IP satisfies their imagination. Whether the ice pier can speak, what kind of voice it can speak if it can, and what story it will have, all belong to the audience's own imagination. And letting the ice pier speak, or even changing the skin in public, is equivalent to depriving the audience of the right to imagine. The direct connection between real people and two-dimensional avatars, whether handsome men under the skin or not, brings not surprise but disillusionment.
In addition to the skin problem, under the rush to buy, there is no shortage of doubts about the quality of the ice piers. Some netizens said that the silicone shell of the ice pier will turn yellow, and the manufacturer responds that the shell is a healthy and edible silicone material, due to oxidation, it will inevitably turn yellow, and it is useless to rub it with alcohol. The ice pier turns yellow, and even knowing the reason is still annoying.
Perhaps with the end of the Winter Olympics, the charm of the ice pier will also fade, and the queue will no longer be grand. But in any case, the ice pier is enough to serve as a node case in the development process of Guochuang IP. The day when the Duffy family dominated the hot search may change with the emergence of the ice pier.