Author | Mia
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How much damage can a made-up joke make?
The Internet celebrity "cat cup" house collapse incident answered this question. On April 12, the Hangzhou police issued a police report, saying that in February this year, the video of "picking up the lost homework book of primary school student Qin Lang in Paris, France" released by the self-media account "Thurman Cat Cup" (hereinafter referred to as "Cat Cup") was suspected of spreading Internet rumors, and the public security organs imposed administrative penalties on Internet celebrity blogger Xu Mouyi, choreographer Xue and the company involved. Subsequently, his account was banned by multiple platforms across the network. Behind the MCN may face platform clearance.
As of the time before it was blocked, "Mao Cup" had about 40 million fans on the whole network, of which its Douyin fans were 19.1 million, Kuaishou 5.83 million, Xiaohongshu 6.975 million, B station 4.81 million, Weibo 1.214 million, and the video number fans are estimated to be several million. According to the information released by its relevant companies, its annual cash realization on the whole network exceeds 100 million.
On the afternoon of April 15, a number of e-commerce platforms showed that the OMETOO store, a clothing brand owned by Maoyi, terminated its operation. ON THE MORNING OF THE SAME DAY, OMETOO CUSTOMER SERVICE APOLOGIZED FOR THE RECENT INCIDENT, SAYING THAT IT HAD REPORTED THE SITUATION TO THE SUPERIORS AND APOLOGIZED FOR THE INCONVENIENCE CAUSED TO CUSTOMERS.
The disappearance of the top Internet celebrity overnight sounded the alarm for the "script creation" and "false character design" of the MCN agency. At the moment of stricter supervision, a cat cup will not be the last to collapse.
The business empire with an annual income of more than 100 million has overturned: a number of cooperative brands have been quickly cut
The advantages of the cat's popularity are obvious: luxury jobs and overseas experience halos, with cute pet guinea pigs, can eat the meals of beauty bloggers, but take the route of funny joke bloggers, speaking French and Cantonese at the same time mixed with "stand-up comedy".
She often complains that the French can't afford to install air conditioning, that the French McDonald's is not delicious, and that the French home is always stolen, etc., which is in line with the domestic stereotype of France. A video imitating a guinea pig eating vegetable leaves made her popular and became known as the "guinea pig head".
She claims to be fluent in four languages, graduated from the ECSCP of the Paris Fashion Union Institute, and has been in France for ten years as a designer at YSL Saint Laurent Paris headquarters, responsible for the design of Saint Laurent leather jewelry, and has also been featured on the wall of honor of her alma mater. And these personalities and experiences, as well as the previous video of "the Frenchman who does not work overtime, invited Chinese infrastructure to work overtime to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral", after she overturned, were also counterfeited and questioned.
Perhaps no one could have imagined that a paragraph would evolve into the current situation. This year, Mao Cup released a video saying that a Frenchman handed over a winter vacation homework book and asked her to help return it to the owner. At the end of the video, she shouted: "Qin Lang, Class 8 of XX Primary School, you forgot to take your winter vacation homework in the toilet in Paris." ”
The video appeared on a number of hot searches and was forwarded by mainstream media, accelerating the spread and fermentation of the incident. Subsequently, a netizen who claimed to be "Uncle Qin Lang" revealed his identity in the comments, and also revealed Qin Lang's school and class, which caused Xichang Primary School in Jiangsu Province to be unbearable, and the social impact of the incident has expanded. Subsequently, "Uncle Qin Lang" was banned, and netizens searched for people all over the Internet, some netizens began to question the authenticity of the video, and some fans maintained and washed the floor.
On February 19, Maoya released another video and posted a screenshot of the relevant chat history, claiming that he had contacted the other party's mother, and the other party was unwilling to appear on camera. It wasn't until the Hangzhou West Lake Public Security officially announced the punishment that Mao Cup finally issued a video apology, saying that the homework incident was just a careful plan from beginning to end, and the purpose was to grab short video traffic.
How did a seemingly "boring" video ferment and become a hot spot on the whole network? Some practitioners believe that this video script uses quite a lot of screenwriting skills: time and space distance, drama and coincidence, romantic imagination of France, and the emotional resonance of primary school students who hate doing homework, and even mobilize the "sense of interaction" of the whole network participation.
The incident is becoming more and more intense, which means hundreds of millions of losses of real money to the people concerned: the price of a single advertisement of "Mao Cup" is about 40 to 700,000 yuan, Tianyan check shows that the real name of "Mao Cup" Xu Mouyi is directly related to 5 companies, of which 4 are in a state of existence, including Guangzhou Herman Network Technology Co., Ltd., Thurman Network Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., Guinea Pig Mi Niu (Shenzhen) Investment Development Co., Ltd., etc. Tianyan map information shows that through direct or indirect shareholding, Xu Mouyi has actual control of 12 companies. She also founded accessories brand CANX and up-and-coming brand THURMAN.
Hangzhou Thurman Network Technology Co., Ltd. previously released a recruitment notice on the job search platform, saying that the company has "top talents" in many fields, including Thurman Cat Cup, with an annual business order income of more than 10 million yuan, and "Thurman Cat Cup The annual cash amount of the whole network exceeds 100 million".
After she overturned, multiple brands quickly dissociated themselves from her. In response to the rumors that Mao Cup signed a contract with Zhiji Auto for endorsement, Zhiji officially said that it has never had any official endorsement cooperation with "Mao Cup", and the relevant materials are for media partners to give away resources in 2023. In addition, the materials accompanying the article are materials that have been removed from the shelves a few months ago (the price of the poster does not match the current price).
In response to the rumors that Maoa Cup cooperated with FPA in co-branded clothing, FPA's brand customer service said that it had cooperated with Maoa Cup in co-branded clothing a long time ago, and there is no cooperation at present.
In response to netizens' questions about the fact that the Internet celebrity cat once claimed to be the designer of the first-line French luxury brand YSL, the customer service center of the official website of SAINT LAURENT China said, "Definitely not, all previous designers can be searched on the Internet."
As for whether the cat cup is terminated, Caudalie's official customer service has not yet replied, and the customer service has said that it has not received any notice about the termination and will give feedback. The item in question has now been deleted.
Is the tragedy caused by a joke too severe? If the name is fictional from the beginning, or if the rumors are not "posted in the chat history" to resist the rumors, there may be room for redemption. The indiscriminate participation of multiple media outlets in the traffic carnival also played a role in pouring oil.
As a "rumor", and triggered the fermentation of public opinion, the bad impact of this video lies in the contradiction with the double reduction policy issued by the Ministry of Education in 2021, the document stipulates that written homework is not allowed in the first and second grades, and the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security will take 2024 as the year of the special action to combat and rectify online rumors, and the cat cup can be said to have hit the muzzle of the gun. In addition, "primary school students go to Paris to play" has also sparked dissatisfaction among some netizens with the "gap between the rich and the poor".
Where are the boundaries of fictional creation, and how can we brake in front of the red line in time? Latecomers in particular need to be warned.
Influencer script fraud is the norm: high risk under traffic anxiety
"How many Internet celebrities don't have a script?" exclaimed an MCN agency operator after the incident.
According to statistics from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), by the end of 2023, the number of short video users in mainland China was 1.053 billion, an increase of 41.45 million from the end of 2022, accounting for 96.4% of the total number of netizens. The life cycle of phenomenal Internet celebrities has been shortened to less than three months, and content creators are prone to fall into traffic growth anxiety.
For the sake of traffic, bloggers are increasingly "doing everything". Rubbing hot topics and following up and imitating secondary creations in a timely manner is one way, and taking the initiative to create hot topics is another way.
In the recruitment of short video script screenwriters, it is a very common requirement to "have a sense of network, a big brain, and be good at creating jokes that are strong in drama and quickly attract the attention of users". Specifically, there are multiple subdivisions, or falsifying the identity of the person, such as showing off wealth, or selling miserably, or making up sensational, family and social conflict storylines, video posing, arousing users' sympathy or sense of substitution.
And these "fictitious things" can easily break the thunder and step on the red line, violate public order and good customs, and even embark on the road of deception and crime. Previously, the blogger "Liangshan Mengyang" created a character of a Yi girl whose parents died and dropped out of school to pull several younger siblings to grow up, and her life was tragic but still optimistic, attracting more than 3 million fans, and turning to live broadcast to bring goods. After a visit by some netizens, they found that her parents were alive, well-dressed, and went in and out of high-end places. Recently, the People's Court of Zhaojue County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, pronounced the first-instance verdict on the cases of "Liangshan Mengyang", "Liangshan Aze" and "Series of Internet Celebrity Live Streaming Cases", and 8 people were sentenced for the crime of false advertising.
Previously, the Kuaishou Internet celebrity "Er Donkey", which has more than 48 million fans, was broadcast live in Qingdao, and the live broadcast content was that he himself was suddenly broken into by a number of men while playing street games, tied him to a car, and was taken into the grove by a curly-haired man wearing a gold chain, while digging a pit, while measuring his height, intending to "bury him alive". The "kidnapping" posed video has had an adverse impact on the image of Qingdao city. On August 18, the Qingdao police issued a police report, and the Internet celebrity involved was still subject to administrative punishment by the public security organs, in addition to this, the account has been banned indefinitely.
From "The female delivery man collapsed and cried on the side of the road after her car was stolen" and "was asked by a stranger to accompany the drink" to "The 211 graduated man was laid off to deliver food without his wife" and "Disguised pregnant women to get married", from family struggles, gender antagonism to the gap between the rich and the poor, unemployment crisis, and marriage and love anxiety, each video is trying to stimulate the audience's eyes and emotions, which is quite similar to the idea of short drama creation.
In July last year, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of 'Self-Media', which requires website platforms to mark fictional or deduced labels in a conspicuous manner when "self-media" publish content containing fictional plots or plot interpretations. Website platforms are encouraged to label disputed information with controversy, and limit the flow of relevant information. For rumors involving areas such as public policy, societal and people's livelihoods, and major emergencies, website platforms shall promptly label the rumor label.
Obviously, both short videos and live broadcasts have bid farewell to the era of savage growth, with stricter regulation, and platforms and viewers are becoming less and less tolerant of "fake". If you still want to have a good job, the sensitivity to the change of public opinion and the necessity of positive value orientation of social responsibility will be a must for practitioners.