Chapter 190 of 200

Chapter 190

Chapter 190. The Return of Pants Girl

The day of the Academy Awards arrived.

The reporter and camera crew from 〈Entertainment News〉 were preparing to film among reporters from all over the world.

As the nominees arrived one after another, they planned to grab interviews with each of them.

The filming producer approached the reporter.

"Today, focus entirely on Park Jae-hyun and Kim Chae-ryeong. Don't pay any attention to anyone connected to Universe."

"What? Why?"

Two Korean directors had been nominated this year.

And Kim Serin and Jin Youngchae had starred in their respective films.

If they weren't going to interview them, then why had they even come here?

"Why do you think? I told you to focus on Kim Chae-ryeong. Isn't the reason obvious?"

Kim Chae-ryeong.

She was famous for having a terrible personality.

A woman who liked showing off her money just because Chairman Kim Gyu-bong's blood ran through her veins.

But if all she did was brag about being rich, that would've been almost cute.

She constantly hovered around broadcasting companies trying to exert influence, and whenever there was an actor she didn't like, she would somehow find a way to stop them from appearing on television.

Fortunately, Kim Chae-ryeong was like an aluminum kettle.

She heated up quickly and cooled down just as quickly.

Celebrities who got on her bad side only had to stay tense for a month or two before they could return to their normal activities.

There was even a joke in the industry.

If a celebrity suddenly disappeared from television for several days, just wait two months.

"There. Kim Chae-ryeong and Park Jae-hyun are coming. Move."

"Yes."

At least celebrities eventually crawled back onto television.

But if a producer got fired during those two months, their entire life could become miserable.

The reporter desperately wanted to rebel against Kim Chae-ryeong.

But what about the poor filming producer?

There was no choice but to do as they were told.

The reporter started approaching Kim Chae-ryeong for an interview.

Then suddenly, Leonardo Aprio, a man so famous even spies would recognize his face, approached Kim Chae-ryeong while holding a phone.

He even handed his phone to her for a moment and said something.

"I guess a chaebol is still a chaebol. Even foreigners recognize her. And that's Leonardo Aprio approaching her first. Is he asking for her number?"

"Just film that first!"

The reporter and producer rushed over.

Leonardo Aprio had exploded in popularity through the movie 〈Titanic Ship〉 and had long since grown into a veteran actor considered one of the greats.

In his youth, his delicate, boyish looks had broken the hearts of countless women.

Now, he had become a macho middle-aged man with a rugged aura.

"Come on, I told you I'd take the picture for you."

When the camera crew got close enough to Kim Chae-ryeong and Leonardo Aprio, CEO Do Jun-hyeok spoke from behind Aprio.

Aprio waved both hands.

"No, no. I'm taking a picture with Universe's singers. You should be in it too."

"Then send me the photo afterward too."

Aprio and Do Jun-hyeok began exchanging numbers using Jun-hyeok's phone.

Once they were done, Aprio spoke to Kim Chae-ryeong.

"Then please."

Kim Chae-ryeong raised the phone and took a picture of Serin, Youngchae, Do Jun-hyeok, and Leonardo Aprio together.

With her normal personality, she might have gotten furious and thrown the phone.

But perhaps she'd noticed the 〈Entertainment News〉 camera crew already standing nearby.

Surprisingly, she behaved.

Though she was probably burning with humiliation inside.

"The camera's rolling, right?"

The reporter quietly asked the producer.

"Yeah. This isn't exactly an interview clip, so it should be fine to broadcast, right?"

After handing the members over to their respective directors, I returned to my beloved black Starius and watched the awards ceremony live.

Just as the future spam had shown, Director Choi Gyu-sik was sweeping the awards.

As if declaring, I'm the insane director of this neighborhood, even Best Production Design went to 〈The Stranger〉.

"I'd like to sincerely thank everyone at the Academy for giving us this award. And as I keep repeating, I also want to thank CEO Do Jun-hyeok of Universe, who supported us not only financially but throughout the entire process of preparing for the film festivals."

He mentioned my name every time he won something.

I was lying back in the driver's seat of the Starius watching on my phone, but somehow I felt like I was appearing at the ceremony myself.

"Thank you very much for giving such positive recognition to this insignificant work. I'll accept this award as encouragement to do better in the future."

As predicted by the future spam, Park Chan-deok won the short-film award.

His acceptance speech was simple.

No mention of any "unpleasant incident."

Filming had gone smoothly.

The film had succeeded without trouble.

"And I'd also like to thank CEO Do Jun-hyeok for all the support he continued to provide after the film was completed so that it could reach a wider audience."

He mentioned me too.

I appreciated both of them making sure not to leave me out.

But any foreigner who didn't know the situation might start thinking I was some major power broker in the Korean film industry.

Then Dae-hun sent me a message, covering part of the broadcast screen.

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Director Park didn't even mention his wife, but he never forgets you, hyung. How many meals did you buy him?]

As if buying meals mattered.

Just recommending a goddess like Youngchae for casting was already a favor Director Park should spend the rest of his life repaying.

Of course, the same went for me.

〈Listen to the Sound of Blue〉 was so visually beautiful that you could pause the video anywhere and call the frame a photoshoot.

There was a reason Sriver liked it so much.

The same applied to every scene Youngchae appeared in.

That one film alone could probably sustain our Apollo comrades for several months.

[I spent some money, you punk.]

[I got curious and checked some foreign news. Your name is crazy right now. I think Do Jun-hyeok might be more famous than North Korea's Kim Jeong-un.]

Really?

I went online too.

There were surprisingly many people asking what the phrase Dojunhyeok Daepyonim meant.

[It's a person's name.]

[Person's name.]

[Doesn't it mean something like "Ladies and gentlemen"?]

[He's Blue Moon's manager.]

[Who's Do Jun-hyeok Daepyonim? Some Korean film-industry tycoon?]

Exactly what I'd feared had happened.

Fortunately, our members were also receiving huge amounts of attention.

Youngchae in particular was still being talked about because of the Halftime Show.

She had even gained a nickname.

They took the Jean from Michael Jason's song 〈Ori Jean〉 and started calling her Jean Girl.

Since jeans were especially strongly associated with pants in Korea, some Koreans simply called her Pants Girl.

Coincidentally, Youngchae had often worn pants during activities anyway, so the nickname gained even more traction.

After briefly exploding in popularity through Hong Young-hye's Nutube channel and then going relatively quiet, Youngchae was surging again.

[When we get back to Korea, let's look into more skirt outfits for Youngchae. Calling her Pants Girl makes her sound like she's only a girl in name.]

[She dances a lot, so she just naturally ended up wearing pants more often. What do you want us to do?]

[Then she should dance less from now on.]

Anyway, the Academy's influence really was powerful.

If people were curious enough about my name to search for it, that meant they'd actually sat there and listened carefully to those long, boring directors' acceptance speeches.

In any case, the Best Production Design achievement for 〈The Stranger〉 that I'd been waiting for since the year before last was finally complete.

A lot had happened.

So much that Park Chan-deok had even gotten mixed into the story halfway through.

Then from here on out...

A beautiful future.

A bright tomorrow.

That's what should be waiting for us, right?

After watching the Academy Awards broadcast, Sriver Chairman Kim Gyu-bong immediately summoned the heads of the US branch and the Korean headquarters.

Whatever anyone said, Sriver was one of Korea's largest companies with virtually no domestic rival.

If its promotion was handled properly, there was no reason it should lose in the global market either.

And to make that happen, he first needed to devise a plan with the US branch president to secure Do Jun-hyeok properly.

"Our Shinseo Group has many affiliates, and all of them are performing well. But above everything else, Sriver has to succeed. How long are you going to let Aple keep selling phones?"

"We're doing our best."

First, Kim Gyu-bong spoke about what he had realized while using Jin Youngchae as a model.

"The business we're in isn't actually that difficult. If consumers want a phone, we make one and sell it. If they want food, we cook food and sell it. But if that's all you do, you'll never truly succeed. If you add something intangible to an otherwise identical product, doesn't it become much easier to sell?"

Kim Gyu-bong believed promotion was also a form of production.

They would continue manufacturing products the same way they always had.

But if they could add something invisible to a product and still sell it at the same price, the volume would rise dramatically.

Hadn't they just experienced that through Jin Youngchae's advertisement?

"I understand. People spend money even on baseball games, which aren't products at all and can simply be watched through television."

The US branch president answered.

Exactly.

A physical product could only be sold in proportion to how many units you actually manufactured.

Sports weren't like that.

The branch president said people could simply watch them on television, but even that still cost money.

Content didn't have a fixed maximum sales volume.

You could create one thing and sell it endlessly.

Sports were that kind of product.

"The idol product Do Jun-hyeok sells is the same. Look at this advertising campaign. How much money has the branch poured into marketing over the years? Yet you've never once produced an effect comparable to the single commercial headquarters unexpectedly aired during the Super Bowl."

The US branch always spent its marketing budget in exactly the same way.

Which meant they were always promoting through exactly the same methods.

Get a model.

Send life-size standees to every retail store.

Pay a broadcasting company and vaguely ask them to make a commercial.

Put something on Nutube.

Put something on portal sites.

Done.

"How many marketing employees does Sriver have in total? Why have we spent decades promoting nothing except 'Sriver makes good products'? With this many employees and this many years, why hasn't a single promotional idea changed?"

"Then what should we..."

"Obviously there's a problem. Someone must've come up with creative ideas at some point, but they were probably rejected because they were considered too risky. Look at Do Jun-hyeok. He suggested that insanely expensive Super Bowl commercial. And not even a product commercial. A brand commercial."

They had successfully made Jin Youngchae's beautiful yet intelligent image part of Sriver's identity.

That was the result of boldly and creatively attempting an American advertising campaign.

Both the US branch president and the Korean business president felt the point deeply.

Kim Gyu-bong was about to move on to the main topic.

Then...

"Dad! Is it true you're planning to invest in Universe? Are you kidding me right now?!"

It was Kim Gyu-bong's granddaughter, Kim Chae-ryeong.

"That Do Jun-hyeok person has such a terrible reputation. If you invest in them, you'll lose everything!"

Kim Gyu-bong hadn't even started telling the executives his plan yet.

And he already knew Kim Chae-ryeong had been badly humiliated by Do Jun-hyeok.

Many of the people Kim Chae-ryeong ordered around were, in the end, people Kim Gyu-bong had hired.

Plenty of stories made their way back to him.