Chapter 582 - 582 Refusal to Endorse

“Xu Yang, young Wang, I haven’t taken any endorsement deals for a long time, and now if I do commercials, it’s for charities. I don’t endorse just any product. Only if it’s suitable will I consider endorsing it; if it’s not suitable, I won’t.” Chen Long said.

“Endorse a game.” Wang Xiaocong said with a smile.

“Endorse a game?” Chen Long was stunned.

He naturally couldn’t be unaware of games.

Back in the day, he had even endorsed the Emperor Learning Console.

This Emperor Learning Console, though called a learning device, was bought by ninety-nine percent of students not to study but to play games.

As for current games, Chen Long didn’t play them, but he was somewhat knowledgeable.

Like something about Honor of Kings, Dungeon and Heroes, and the like.

“Big brother, take a look, this is our game’s planning proposal.” Wang Xiaocong handed the planning document to Chen Long.

Chen Long took it and passed it to Fan Yunfan, his agent next to him: “Xiao Fan, take a look. I only have a superficial understanding of current games, unlike you young people who are experts.”

Chen Long then introduced him to the two men: “I forgot to introduce you; this is Xiao Fan, my agent. He handles some of my affairs now, like Weibo and other trendy things. He’s very capable and does a great job.”

Xu Yang praised, “I can tell he’s talented.”

Wang Xiaocong said with a laugh, “With such an agent, big brother will never fall behind.”

Fan Yunfan sat next to Chen Long, smiled and nodded at the two men, and began to browse through the documents.

The few pages of documents took more than ten minutes to read, and he read them very carefully.

After reading them, he basically understood the entire advertising concept for Greedy Play Today.

He organized his thoughts and said, “Big brother, Xu Yang and young Wang want you to endorse a game called Greedy Play Today. The endorsement fee is fifteen million, which is indeed slightly higher than your usual endorsement rate. You can see their sincerity, but I still advise you not to take this endorsement.”

Chen Long asked perplexed, “Why?”

His endorsement rate was typically around twelve million.

An endorsement of fifteen million was indeed above his normal rate.

In fact, Chen Long really wanted to take the endorsement.

While making movies was profitable, it was also grueling.

Making movies was exhausting, and sometimes it even involved risking your life.

Endorsing products was so much easier.

Just say a few lines, make some gestures, and over ten million would be in the bank.

It was so effortless, just like picking up money.

And having just given his son five million, he needed to recoup some funds.

Besides, he was also getting older and taking on easy commercials to make some money was completely reasonable.

“This game is just too crappy.” Fan Yunfan stated his reason bluntly, without mincing words, and after speaking, he gave an apologetic smile to Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong, “Sorry, you two, I’m just telling it like it is.”

Xu Yang smiled slightly, “You’re telling the truth. In fact, when I saw this game yesterday, I also felt that it was too crappy.”

Wang Xiaocong said, “When I first saw the game that our company developed, I also thought it was crappy.”

Upon hearing this, Fan Yunfan was a bit baffled, “If you two think the game is crappy, why are you still pushing it to the market, and why do you want big brother to endorse it?”

Before Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong could speak, Chen Long asked, “It’s just a game, how can it be considered crappy?”

He didn’t quite understand.

Aren’t games just like that?

If you like to play, play. If you don’t like to play, then don’t. What’s all this rubbish about?

Fan Yunfan explained, “Big brother, I consider myself a gaming expert. Based on my understanding of games, this one is primarily selling nostalgia and aimed at milking players. It’s not popular among mainstream gamers. If you endorse this game, it will have a very negative impact on your personal brand image.”

He truly had no good feelings about “Greedy Play Today,” so naturally, he did not want Chen Long to endorse it.

In his view, only those washed-up old stars who couldn’t land any acting roles would accept such game endorsements.

Although Brother Chen Long was older, he was still shining bright in the film industry, nothing like those has-been stars who couldn’t land roles.

Chen Long pressed, “I still don’t quite understand how this game could have such a negative impact on my personal image?”

He couldn’t figure out how just one game could have such a terribly negative effect on his image.

Back in his younger days, he indulged in drinking, womanizing, and gambling, acted like a scumbag, and endorsed products from companies that went under, all without much impact. So how could endorsing a game matter so much?

For a moment, Fan Yunfan wasn’t sure what to say.

What makes a game good, and what makes it rubbish? How do you explain that?

However, Fan Yunfan was a clever guy. After a moment’s thought, he came up with an idea and said to Chen Long, “Big brother, if I just tell you, you might not understand. Let me perform it for you, so you can see what it looks like when you shoot the commercial.”

Chen Long nodded, “Alright, show me.”

As Chen Long’s agent who followed him around every day, Fan Yunfan learned a bit about acting through observation. He couldn’t compare to professionals, but he was certainly better than some of those young idols. Performing the effect of an ad was well within his capabilities.

So, he took the planning script and began to perform.

“Honestly, I was initially against shooting this commercial. It’s not like I’ll just do it because you asked me to. I had to check out the game, and when I did, I found the loot drop rate was incredibly high and you could even idle while offline. Now I play this with the Chen Family Crew every day, finding the same passion I had when I was younger. It’s genuinely fun.”

Watching Fan Yunfan deliver such a line of ad copy…

Chen Long saw Fan Yunfan’s exaggerated acting and heard the ad script he was reciting, causing his face to cringe with embarrassment.

This was damn near the same as that Ba Emperor Shampoo commercial he shot back in the day.

The Ba Emperor Shampoo script was similar: Actually, at first, I refused to do this commercial. You can’t just make me do it because you asked; I had to see what the effect was blah blah blah…

But then Ba Emperor Shampoo had issues, and it even affected Chen Long’s image.

Later on the shows, Feng Gangpao teased Chen Long about it, making him quite embarrassed.

Many netizens also loved spoofing Chen Long with it, and to this day, many animated GIFs are still circulating.

Fan Yunfan continued his performance and kept on with the lines.

“Big brother, we’ve fought our way from the newbie village all the way here. I’ve been the vanguard in each siege; by now, this city should make me the lord, right?”

“Tonight at nine, I’ll wait for you at Stone City!”

“If you’re a brother, come at me!”

“Equipment recycling, super high drop rates, free trade!”

“…”@@novelbin@@

Fan Yunfan was getting into the zone, pairing his lines with related exaggerated gestures; his performance was pretty good.

But as Chen Long watched, he was so cringed out that he quickly called a halt: “Enough, enough, no need to perform anymore, I get it.”

Fan Yunfan asked, “Big brother, do you still want to endorse it?”

Chen Long quickly shook his head: “Of course not.”

If he were to endorse such trashy game, letting others see his foolish side, Chen Long felt he would be too ashamed even to step outside.

He turned to Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong, “President Xu, young master Wang, I’m sorry, but I can’t possibly take on this advertisement.”