I am Really a Superstar

It felt like, at this moment, the whole country had fallen silent!

When Beijing Television’s quit smoking PSA was broadcast, everyone in the whole country was seemingly shocked all at once. Not only the citizens, even the countless media persons and professionals, as well as some of the quit smoking organizations, were all left sitting quietly in front of their television screens, staring at the frightening quit smoking PSA that left them totally dumbfounded!

The internet was abuzz with commotion!

Countless links to the PSA flooded the forums, while on Weibo, the topic of “World No Tobacco Day” was suddenly filled with countless of netizens!

“Heavens!”

“Who has seen BTV-1’s public service announcement?”

“I saw it! Oh my dear lord! It was too damn scary!”

“What the heck was that! It nearly scared the shit out of me!”

“I’m still shivering from watching it! Even a horror film isn’t as scary as that!”

“How could it have only lasted for 15 seconds! That made me break out into a cold sweat! In fact, it made me downright sick! It feels like my lungs are burning at every moment!”

“Is this what a quit smoking PSA is like?”

“Beijing Television Station, f**k your sister!”

“BTV-1, why are you so cruel! I’m gonna pass out soon because of it! Can we not have something so frightening next time? It’s just an PSA! It looks like you’re not giving a chance to so many of us smokers!”

A Weibo user named Hao Pengyao who saw that the discussions were getting livelier could not wrap his head around what was going on. He had seen many quit smoking PSAs on many of the television channels over the past few days, but there was no particular PSA that stood out for being scary at all. Quit smoking PSAs had been shown for so many years now, so how could there still be any that could scare people?

So Hao Pengyao asked out of curiosity: “What are you all talking about? What PSA?”

Another Weibo user explained to him: “Does the person above not know? Go check out BTV-1 and play back from a minute ago. After you have watched it, you will understand! Don’t blame me for not warning you first! Be careful when. It’s best you not smoke while watching it, otherwise, the consequences can’t even be imagined!”

Hao Pengyao answered disbelievingly: “I believe I’ve already watched it. The quit smoking PSAs that were shown in these few days were really quite meaningless. I will still smoke whenever I want to. They don’t affect me.”

“Hehe, I’m sure you haven’t watch it before.”

“Right, go ahead and watch it then, my friend.”

Hao Pengyao replied: “Alright, let me take a look then.”

Then, about two minutes later, Hao Pengyao appeared on Weibo once more. The first thing he said was: “F**k! Who f**king made me go watch that! Who was it? Who was it just now! You better come out! Stand up! I promise I won’t beat you up!”

“Pfft!”

“Hahaha!”

“Another one bites the dust!”

“Aiyo, I’m laughing so badly now!”

Hao Pengyao, who had still been very confident before he watched the PSA, was now in tears, “Holy shit! How could that PSA affect me so much! My heart, spleen, and kidneys are already trembling with fear! I suddenly feel like I should quit smoking!”

There were also doubters.

“The PSA doesn’t seem that scary?”

“It’s a little scary, but surely it’s not that frightening?”

“I don’t get what’s so scary about it either.”

Hao Pengyao came on to say: “I don’t suppose you few are smokers?” Only after he had their confirmation did he continue, “The frightening part of this PSA lies in that breathing sound, the psychological pressure, and that sense of despair. It somehow captures our attention and gets into our heads. These are things only a real smoker can experience! This is a type of fear that strikes us and then envelopes us from within. I’m not good at expressing myself, nor am I able to describe it clearly!”

When this group of people started the commotion, many others who didn’t watch Beijing Television or did not notice the PSA earlier could not sit still any longer. All of them went to look for the PSA themselves!

“I won’t believe this shit”

“Is it really that good?”

“Let me go take a look as well!”

“Where is it at? Send me a link! I’m too lazy to play it back on TV!”

“You guys are not viral marketeers hired by BTV right? There are already so many quit smoking PSAs around, how likely is it that they could come up with something new? Send me a link. I want to see it too!”

Before long, those who went to watch the PSA were left unable to say anything more!

Since the afternoon, more and more people had searched for the PSA out of curiosity. As a result, large wave after large wave of people all over the country were shocked by what they watched! Was it scary? There was no blood and gore and it only had a very gentle reminder that was written as “Give life a chance, make a new choice”. The pace of the PSA was also not intense. In place of a real organ was a prop replacement. By these factors, there shouldn’t be any reason to be frightened. If all these were presented one by one to you, you wouldn’t even feel a thing when you watched them. However, when all of them were combined with the background music and sound effects, it was surprisingly viewed with a different perspective altogether. Only when everyone saw it did they realize that even a gentle and soothing PSA message presented with a prop which had no blood or gore could leave everyone feeling such incredulous fear!

“This PSA is too godly!”

“This has to be the my favorite public service announcement this year!”

“+1!”

“The PSA’s message is such a classic as well. “Give life a chance, make a new choice”? It’s put so elegantly and beautifully. It’s so much better than those other existing quit smoking PSAs!”

“I like the PSA’s message too!”

……

At home.

Zhang Ye, in his bedroom lying down, was just about to surf the internet before going to sleep. He was also very curious about what the netizens’ thoughts were regarding the public service announcement.

Yo, seems like the response is rather good?

Even though this fell within his expectations, it still left him in a good mood knowing it.

The praises for this PSA back in his previous world were also excellent and countless people had Liked it. So in this world where the development of public service announcements was not as advanced as his previous world, it went without saying how well received it was. With the slightly lowered standards of this world’s advertising industry as a background, Zhang Ye had brought out a top-notch quit smoking PSA from his world to show to them. With a lead of several years compared to the PSAs of this world, it would definitely create a much bigger sensation!

There were endless comments.

In just a short time, there were already more than 10,000 comments!

Zhang Ye read through them with gusto.

“Didn’t Beijing Television Station’s PSA get affected by the new policies just yesterday? I would’ve thought that they couldn’t come up with a new one by today, but who knew that BTV-1 would be so capable? In just a day, they have come up with such a perfect quit smoking PSA? It’s truly worthy of its name as a traditional powerhouse. They are capable of showing their experience when push comes to shove! How formidable.”

“Yea, it was really wonderful! They should’ve created such quit smoking PSAs a long ago. It should just scare smokers to death! I hate them the most, harming themselves and people around them. There’s nothing good about them at all!”

“A Like for Beijing Television Station!”

“BTV-1! Well done!”

“Hahahaha! My dad has been a hardcore smoker for over 30 years, but after watching this PSA, he actually said that he would be quitting smoking! Thank you, Beijing Television Station! Thank you!”

“Since when did we have such an awesome standard for the public service announcements in our country? Even if compared to overseas productions, this PSA’s creativity and design is way ahead of them! It feels like it has surpassed the overseas production by at least a few years. From the audio to the visuals to the oppressing feeling of watching it, every detail was simply perfect. It’s really great! So there’s really an advertising team in our country that has such a world class standard?”

“A person who could come up with such a concept of a PSA must be a crazy! Not only crazy, he is definitely the craziest among the crazies! How could he be so wicked!”

“It’s indeed really wicked!”

“Whenever I pick up my cigarettes now, I don’t even feel like lighting up!”

“I have been mentally affected by it! Who was it! Who was it! I swear to god that your child will be born without an ass! That was too damaging! You’re totally wicked, I tell you!”

At this moment, someone posted a screenshot.

It was an image of the tail end of the quit smoking PSA.

The female Weibo user who posted it said: “Didn’t you all notice the words at the end of the PSA? Could I be the only one who noticed it?”

“What words?”

“Ah?”

Many of these people had not discovered it yet, first, because they paid attention to the PSA’s content and were focused on it, and second, because the words at the ending were placed at the bottom in a small font. Besides, when the typical viewer watches an ad, their attention does not usually focus onto this textual information. It’s the same when a movie screening ends; the majority of the audience just leaves without bothering to watch the end credits.

The female Weibo user said, “Look in the bottom right corner.”

At this time, an untold number finally spotted the words!

“What!?”

“Produced by Zhang Ye?”

“Oh my god! It’s a Zhang Ye production!”

“So it was that guy!”

“Damn! I was still wondering who was so wicked! The only person who could come up with such a wicked advertisement would be that wicked wretch, Zhang Ye! Only he would do something like that!”

“Why is Teacher Zhang everywhere!”

“Aiyo, I nearly forgot. I read a news article online this morning and I think it was reporting on a matter that happened yesterday. It mentioned that Zhang Ye had appeared at the lobby of Beijing Television Station! He actually…he actually went to help Beijing Television Station put out the fire! He actually helped BTV-1 produce the PSA!”

“That can’t be? Didn’t Zhang Ye and Beijing Television Station have a feud?”

“What’s not possible? No matter how deep their feud, it was still Beijing Television Station that groomed Teacher Zhang. Teacher Zhang had also helped Beijing Television Station create a legendary story for its local provincial channel by getting very high viewership ratings. Even if he had been fired at the end, neither party burned any bridges. We all know that Teacher Zhang is a sentimental person who is a Beijing local. Even if the bones are broken, the nerves still join them together!”

“Unbelievable! Teacher Zhang had actually made a move!”

“Yeah, this is really surprising! I didn’t expect that Beijing Television Station would invite Teacher Zhang to help them out at this critical juncture! And this completed PSA of Teacher Zhang’s is really done too beautifully! In my opinion, this is no ordinary public service announcement. It is actually a form of art! Alright, I admit it. I am actually a braindead fan of Teacher Zhang Ye. As long as they’re Teacher Zhang’s works, I’ll think they’re all masterpieces!”

“You’re not the only one who sees it as a masterpiece, even I see it that way! No matter what award this PSA wins, I say that it will be well-deserved! It’s too awesome! Teacher Zhang is still the best!”

“Awesome!”

“Zhang Ye is a god!”

“I’m convinced too! He’s truly the legend that made the Brain Gold advertisement as well. His grasp of the market is well beyond the entirety of the advertising world in our country! To increase sales and raise a brand name, Zhang Ye made a super brainwashing ad. To promote his own program, Zhang Ye made a simple but passionate and inspiring ad. This time, when public awareness was needed to promote the quitting of smoking, Zhang Ye even captured the essence of the market and applied it keenly into that ‘horror’ of an artistic PSA! This is what a master is! A real master of advertising! It seems that everything was just so simple for him, so casually and handily created by him!”

Translator’s note: Some news update for everyone, I’ve started my Patreon, so you can check it out here

For every $50 increment in total pledges, there will be 1 chapter accumulated for release in the following month. Thank you for your support!

On top of this, until the end of April, for every increase of 10 patrons, up to 80 patrons, regardless of amount pledged, 1 chapter will be released within the day of hitting the milestones. This will run concurrent to item 1. (The next is the 20 patrons milestone/7 more to go!)

There are plans for advanced chapters sometime next month, so watch out for the announcement!