Chapter 578: Petrified!
At the television station.
On the fifth floor where the Advertising Department was located.
The “World No Tobacco Day” public service announcement was expected to be released around noon, so the deadline was between 8 and 9 AM. They were to submit the end result for approval. Only after that would the ad be allowed to be broadcast on TV. Hence, at this moment, there were already two leaders from Advertising Department waiting there. This was a first time ‘public service announcement crisis’ for Beijing Television Station. Because of this, those two were anxiously waiting for the Public Service Announcement Department to submit the finished product.
“Where are they?”
“Why aren’t they here yet?”
“Are they at the recording studio?”
“Are they still recording?”
“It’s over. They won’t make it on time.”
Some staff members of the Advertising Department who had helped out yesterday afternoon deliberately arrived at work earlier to see if there was anything more they could do to help. When they saw that there was no one in the office and sensed the atmosphere, they felt that they were probably not needed anymore, since there was probably nothing they could do anyway.
Sun Han carried a box and proceeded upstairs.
“Little Sun.” One of the Advertising Department’s deputy heads said anxiously, “How’d it go? Everyone is waiting for the ad. Did you guys manage to complete it?”
The deputy director of the Advertising Department asked with a serious face, “Is it not finished?”
Sun Han sighed and answered, “Leader, I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”
The deputy director’s expression changed and said, “Didn’t I send over a lot of help yesterday? Why did it still…never mind.” As he spoke, his tone also calmed. As a leader of an advertising agency, he certainly knew how much time and effort was required to produced an ad. Even with a day’s time, a roughly put together advertisement would be difficult to produce, even more so for an advertisement that had to be reshot to fit the new regulations. Before they had started on this project, everyone had already believed that this was an impossible task. This was a project that no advertising company wanted to take on. So no one had actually placed much hope on it being completed. Now that it hadn’t been, it was still completely within reason.
The intern girl who had followed them upstairs said, “Teacher Zhang has already tried his best and had worked without sleep for 24 hours!” Most people would probably be able to survive without sleep for a whole day and night, but one prerequisite was the absence of physical and mental exertion. Just compare watching movies that interest you for 24 hours straight while taking breaks to work for a bit, versus working intensively for 24 hours straight. These two were totally different notions similar to the difference between heaven and earth.
When the people from the Advertising Department heard that, they drew a deep breath.
“24 hours just to battle against the deadline?”
“Zhang Ye really risked his life for this!”
“Hai, it wasn’t easy for Zhang Ye either.”
“No one could’ve completed this task since the time given was too short.”
“We’re done for. We’ll surely get fined this time.”
“When the media starts to report on this, the reputation of Beijing Television Station will surely be affected. It feels like these new policies were targeted at us.”
“Stop grumbling. Just count ourselves unlucky.”
“If we had another day’s time, there might’ve still been some hope.”
“Don’t say anymore, hai. We’ve already done our best.”
“Yeah, we did all that we could’ve done. If we can’t complete it, then that’s that. It’s life.”
The people from the Advertising Department were ready to disperse.
When the person in charge of submitting the ad for approval saw this, he also sighed and turned to leave with the other leaders.
But right at this point, Zhang Ye came upstairs. Noticing everyone’s behavior, he felt very surprised and said, “Huh, why are there so many people here? What’s the matter? Where’re you guys going?”
The person in charge of the approval process comforted him by saying, “Teacher Zhang, thanks for your effort. When we were faced with such a difficult situation, you still came back to help us.” He had worked with him before, during the electricity conservation public service announcement. Even though they did not know each other very well, they had still spoken a little before.
Sun Han also said, “Thank you.”
It wasn’t known when Hu Fei had arrived, but when he did, he walked straight up to Zhang Ye and said, “Little Zhang, you’ve already done your best.”
Zhang Ye was nearly confused by them, and didn’t know how to respond. Then he said, “What are you all talking about? When did I say I didn’t finish the ad?”
The intern girl was shocked. “Ah?”
Sun Han blinked a few times and said, “Weren’t there some problems with the prop?”
“There was.” Zhang Ye laughed. “But overnight, I completed another prop which met the requirements. Oh, aren’t you already carrying it in that box in your hands? Didn’t I already state that since I’d agreed to handle this project, I would make sure that it would be completed and done to its best? So why did you all think that I wouldn’t finish it?”
Hu Fei said in surprise, “What?”
Sun Han was overwhelmed with excitement and said, “You, you did it all by yourself?”
“Not only that.” Zhang Ye said confidently, “In fact, it is also the version I am most satisfied with. At least I feel that it is hard to find fault with.”
The deputy director of the Advertising Department quickly asked, “Where is it?”
Zhang Ye waved the laptop in his hand around.
“Quick, let’s have a look at it!” The leader also had not expected that he would really manage to do it.
Everyone walked to the office where there was a proper projector and display screen equipment.
Suddenly, there were seven or eight people coming over from the opposite side. When everyone took a look at who it was, they were surprised to see Station Head Xu Yuhong, walking over along with two station leaders and staff members from the Station Head’s office.
The station leaders were coming!
“Station Head!” everyone quickly greeted.
Xu Yuhong smiled and asked, “Is the final version of the ad ready?”
The deputy director of the Advertising Department said, “Teacher Zhang Ye said that it’s finished. We were just going to have a look at it. If it’s good enough, we’ll send it for approval and then arrange the broadcast.”
Xu Yuhong nodded. “OK, let’s watch it together then.”
As even the station head had joined them, when the director of the Advertising Department and many other leaders of the other departments learned of it, they also hurried over to join them. The whole station’s middle and upper management team, together with the people from the Advertising Department were all gathered in a large office, seated and waiting for the showing of the PSA.
Zhang Ye glanced at Xu Yuhong and nodded to her.
Xu Yuhong smiled lightly and nodded back at him.
Zhang Ye tested the equipment, then connected the signal feed. As it was necessary to hook up the amplifier as well, he tinkered with the configuration for a few minutes.
While everyone sat there waiting, a station leader asked for permission from Xu Yuhong, and seeing her give nod of approval, he lit a cigarette. A few of the other leaders who were also heavy smokers also secretly lit their cigarettes.
A while later.
With the background music drifting out from the speakers, the PSA began!
“It’s beginning!”
“Everyone, quiet!”
“Put your cell phones on silent.”
Everyone stared at the big screen not blinking, curious to see the final product. Although Zhang Ye had claimed that the ad was completed, they still wouldn’t quite believe it unless they saw it with their own eyes. In just such a short time, in a situation where only Zhang Ye alone was left working on it, what kind of public service announcement could he have possibly made? The staff who were involved in the ad’s production knew that there was not a single line of narration nor any character scenes in it. It only had one unique prop, of which no one could understand purpose of, in the ad. If this was the one and only prop used in the PSA, would it work? No one knew what kind of style Zhang Ye’s ad would have!
At the next moment, the ad was unveiled!
It was introduced by a gloomy sounding piece of music, done according to the original PSA’s background music in his previous world. Sun Han had found some people from the station to help create it by working overtime. As they had spent a lot of effort on it, this effort could also be felt when it was presented in this final copy of the ad.
The first image appeared showing a shot of part of a cigarette.
The second set of images showed the cigarettes being stacked on top of each other but nothing much could be deduced from this.
Sun Han wiped away his sweat and said, “What is this?”
The awesome quartet asked, “What are these images trying to show?”
“I don’t understand it.” The other advertising professionals also showed some expressions of disappointment. There was no narration, no characters, no “smoking is hazardous to the health” statements. There weren’t even any statistics of the millions of deaths each year, so how could this still be called a quit smoking public service announcement? How could there be such a quit smoking announcement!
They began whispering among themselves.
Several of the leaders from the Advertising Department also had some suspicions about it. This was the first time they had doubted the standard of Zhang Ye’s advertisement product, because from the first five seconds of this ad, it showed just how odd it was. It was really too off from the beaten path. Up until here, they could not even see how this was a quit smoking ad. Besides, how long could a public service announcement run for? Their task this time had stated that the ad would be limited to about fifteen seconds, of which five seconds had already been wasted up for this? They were no longer expecting much of the effects of the latter part of the ad!
However, just as everyone was revealing their disappointed expressions, at the very next second, an image silenced all the gossiping in the audience!
Everyone fell silent!
Because a pair of lungs composed of cigarettes had appeared on the screen and looked overly realistic. Even though they knew the lungs were formed out of cigarettes and was fake, the 3D composition and situational meaning of it left many shaken and stunned. In addition, the densely packed cigarettes formed an intense image that left anyone with a fear of holes too afraid to look!
At this moment, the cigarettes started to burn!
One spot flared up, followed by a second and third point flaming!
On the lungs, the parts where it had been lit started to give off faint wisps of smoke. What chilled everyone to the bone was the introduction of a breathing track laid over the background music!
Ssh!
Huu!
Ssh!
Huu!
A station leader who was smoking suddenly felt shivers go down his spine. The cigarette in his hand fell to the ground!
With every slow breath, the three points aflame on the lungs reacted like how a cigarette would burn brighter with every breath. The cigarettes burned constantly, with the tendency to spread to the other cigarettes. At the beginning, it was only one cigarette burning, then along with the breathing track, the other cigarettes making up the rest of the “lungs” also started to burn, increasing the range of the smolder. As the cigarettes burnt out bit by bit, the formation of the ashes also got wider!
Breathe in…
Burn…
Breathe in…
Burn…
The entire “lung” started to emit smoke!
A few others who were smoking in the office also broke out into cold sweats and quickly threw away the cigarettes in their hands as their faces quickly paled!
F**k!
What the f**k was this ad!
Towards the end, the “lungs” fully burned out, followed by a coughing track before a few lines appeared across the screen: “Please quit smoking. Give life a chance, make a new choice”!
The end.
The PSA ended. 1
1. You can watch the PSA that this was based on @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgw8o_238F4