Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1446 No Bad Exposure
"Thank you, Ronald. Your actions in the New York mayoral election were very fair and old-fashioned electoral politics. Mr. President and Mrs. Rodham asked me to tell you that they respect your actions in seeking benefits for the people of your hometown. This committee will not conduct any investigation into the election in Staten Island..."

Ronald's former lawyer and current trade negotiator, "Gray Eyes" Mickey Kanter, called. Because of this relationship, the President and the First Lady wanted to communicate with Ronald privately through this channel.

The rumor poster marketing in Brooklyn and other places, and Rudy's unexpected election, caused great dissatisfaction among the top leaders of the Democratic Party. This campaign tactic that clearly crossed the line was also exposed in the Democratic Party media such as the New York Times, and it was criticized a lot for a while.

At that time, there were indeed observers from the Immigration Bureau who came to New York to observe the election, and they were also a little embarrassed by this news. The director had to make a public statement that these observers came to New York to help minorities avoid discrimination, not to arrest them.

The Department of Justice also issued a statement saying they were aware of posters posted throughout New York City that misled voters about the role of federal officials in today's election, and said they would form an investigative committee to look into the matter.

Of course, in America, both sides have many "tricks" in elections. As long as it is not obviously illegal, there is generally no real evidence to prosecute. Moreover, the new mayor will take office soon, and those who have the courage to investigate will soon be squeezed out of the new cabinet.

However, Rudy's actions this time must have made the President and the First Lady hate him. Mrs. Rodham actually lived in New York before. When she was young, she participated in the investigation against the Watergate scandal. She also had some friendships with the top leaders of the Democratic Party here, and it was said that there was a lot of exchange of interests.

In contrast, Ronald's campaign method was a genuine exchange of interests between politicians and voters. After seeing the details, even the president appreciated it, so he asked Mickey Kanter to say hello and do him a favor.

"Congratulations on your success in getting the North American Free Trade Agreement passed by Congress, Mickey. When you get to Los Angeles, you must get together with our good friends in Hollywood. We have benefited so much from this agreement..."

Ronald caught up with Mickey Kanter and continued to chat with Michael Gray and Mike McDavoy of TriStar Pictures about his new marketing strategy.

"No bad exposure?" Medavoy frowned as he looked at the plan Ronald handed over.

Medavoy's wife, Dave, finally divorced him, immediately converted to Judaism (although Medavoy was Jewish, he was not very religious), and married his cheating partner, Ronald Perelman, the Wall Street acquisition tycoon and current boss of Marvel Comics.

After this incident, Miles Medavoy was hit hard. His ambition to get a higher position in Sony has also diminished. Now he focuses more on real film projects rather than those illusory high-level positions.

He has a lot of experience in operating film projects. It is clear at a glance that Ronald is thinking of a controversial marketing method in the public relations industry. Many stars have encountered similar situations intentionally or unintentionally.

Celebrity public relations consultants have long understood that whether it is a good thing or a scandal, it will cause the client's exposure in the media to increase explosively. As long as the intensity of the scandal can be controlled well and subsequent measures are taken to reverse the public impression, a bad thing can be turned into a good thing.

Therefore, some people want to take this easy way out and deliberately create some scandals to appear in the news. However, this operation is highly uncontrollable. If you are not careful in your daily life, you may be involved in previous scandals, which is not worth the loss.

The phrase "There is only exposure, there is no bad exposure" is more of a way for public relations consultants to appease their celebrity clients.

But how about applying this to movies? Many previous projects that did this didn’t work well. This is because movies are a product that relies heavily on word-of-mouth. If you have negative news at the beginning, fewer people will go to the cinema. By the time your rebuttal news comes out, many viewers will not watch your movie because of the negative news.

"Well, that's right, but that's where our difficulty lies. Because of the subject matter of the film, the minority orientation, and... the sick theme, we can't invest in marketing. This will offend audiences with conservative values ​​and cause real controversy.

The quality of the film itself is very high. When we screened it, many viewers said that they had misunderstood this group of people, but after watching the film they found that they were all very kind people and they felt sad for their misfortune.

That’s the difficulty in marketing this movie. How do you promote its theme and arouse the audience’s curiosity without mentioning the name? ”

Ronald smiled. This was what he had figured out from observing the New York mayoral election. Rudy couldn't just say that people couldn't vote without a green card because that would violate election laws. This was a similar dilemma to Ronald's.

Rudy's method is to use a non-foul approach and then add some controversial content to it, calling out the real audience without calling out names so that they can understand what you mean.

"Hmm? Oh, so this is how you create controversy in the media? Disguise the movie as a vague courtroom ethics drama?"

Medavoy also understood. Speaking of the names directly would offend conservatives, but not speaking of the names would cause controversy and mobilize progressives to watch the movie, which would also reduce the vigilance of centrists. This would make the centrists, the largest number of audiences, not worry about watching an uncomfortable movie that praises minority groups and is too progressive.

The message they will get is that this is just a courtroom drama about discrimination against certain groups of people, and in the end, because of the lawyers' battle, the victims of discrimination get justice.

"OK, I like this idea very much. I will play the role you assign to me well." After Mike Medavoy understood the idea, he readily agreed to Ronald's idea of ​​letting him appear in publicity.

……

"Mr. Medavoy, it is said that many media outlets that screened the film have given a very good response to Philadelphia Story. They said that this is the first Hollywood film to receive a positive response... The film is also very good, especially the performances of the two leading actors, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. What do you think of this?"

"Terry, I appreciate your kind words about the film, but let me first point out a mistake in what you said... This Philadelphia Story is not a... film, it is not a look at a... patient. We are not asking the public to see people who have...

This is a deeply affectionate film, with deep humanistic care for the unfortunate, but we are not here to sell misery. This is to show how our American legal system, under the struggle of those righteous lawyers, seeks fairness for everyone who suffers injustice..."

Two days later, on ABC's "Nightline" program, Medavoy was interviewed by a reporter. He completely denied those "rumors", saying... it was just a background story, and you can replace it with sexual harassment, racial discrimination, or anything else in the workplace, it will not affect the expression of the movie, and he highly praised the two male protagonists for their moving acting skills...

The next day, The Hollywood Reporter also published a preview report, which perfectly reflected the publicity effect Ronald wanted to achieve according to his requirements.

"The response to the press screenings was very good, and we can vouch for the excellent performances of both Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and the veteran actress, Joanne Woodward (Paul Newman's wife), made a small but impressive appearance.

She plays the mother of Tom Hanks's character Andy in the movie and has some wonderful lines, which are revealed to be the result of her improvisation on the set. The audience will hopefully be able to appreciate these good actors and good stories when the movie is released.

Since Philadelphia carries the weight of being the first film to focus primarily on… ” The filmmakers understandably took a conservative approach to the subject matter.

"See, this way conservatives won't bother us, progressives will feel sympathy for us not having more to show, and centrists will just want to watch a movie with Hanks and Washington acting out..."

Ronald was very happy that he had accomplished his purpose of delivering the message without mentioning the name. For a time, in a sample survey of moviegoers in the market asking "what movie they want to see next month", Philadelphia Story surpassed Spielberg's Schindler's List and ranked first.

He showed off to Ed Bastien who came to report on his work.

"Very good, your movie will be a success. I watched an internal screening this morning and it made me cry. You really shouldn't show this to me. I still have to call people on Wall Street."

Ed Bastien is not a fan of this kind of film with a clear theme, but Jonathan Demme is of a high level and the story seems to flow smoothly without any preaching. He also joked to Ronald.

"Let's get back to business. You've heard it, right? Redstone and Barry Diller have started the second round of bidding."

"Yes, I don't have a clear idea. One of them offered $8.4 billion and the other offered $8.5 billion. How will the board of directors decide? It all depends on who offers more."

Ronald also heard some news that Barry Diller's second round bid and Redstone's second round were only slightly different in price. Intuitively, with such a large acquisition and such a small price difference, these board members would not decide who to sell to just because of the difference in the price of a few shares they hold, right?
It's like when you go to buy a box of Coke, you won't decide to buy Coke, Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper just because of the ten-cent price difference, right?
"That's right, the key person here is Martin S. Davis..."

Ronald raised his eyebrows. He had met the chairman of Paramount Pictures' parent company (the company being acquired) several times. Why did he become a key figure in this bidding war?

"Barry Diller had a falling out with him and was forced to leave Paramount after a big argument."

Ronald frowned. So there was this. It was said that the conditions offered by Redstone's Viacom included a clause to let Martin S. Davis continue to run Paramount. On the other hand, Barry Diller was the person Martin S. Davis fired back then, and now he is back to be his boss. Anyway, it's a bit strange.

If Barry Diller's QVC wins in the end, Martin S. Davis will not be able to stay, no matter how nice they say. In Hollywood, competition between men is largely a competition of male hormones. I have never heard of any big boss who would endure such humiliation.

However, it is not easy for Martin S. Davis to avoid this humiliation. Barry Diller's team is obviously more professional than Redstone's. His bids were both slightly higher than Redstone's Viacom. If Martin S. Davis still wants to choose Redstone, he will have to convince the board of directors with sufficient reasons to accept a lower price.

Of course, he couldn't say, "It's because I hate Barry Diller." The other people on the board also knew his real reason. In this situation, it's impossible for one party to give up easily. And Redstone also knew about his feud with Barry Diller. If Martin S. Davis wanted to stay in the position of chairman, he would have to make great efforts.

In short, this is a very exciting M&A battle. All three parties know their own weaknesses and also know each other's cards. The battle may become more and more exciting as time goes on.

"How are our own affairs?" Ronald then asked Bastian about the integration of Daydream and the New York Daily News Group, and the financial operations.

"Our system covers a wide range, including TV stations, newspapers, radio stations, film production, distribution, overseas distribution, etc. Although it is small, Wall Street will be very interested. There is only one shortcoming that needs to be made up..."

The two chatted for a while, and Ed Bastian listed some potential acquisition targets in the future to enrich the company's channels.

"By the way, QVC and Viacom, are you really not going to hype it up?" Ed Bastian knew that many wealthy people in Hollywood and Wall Street were taking advantage of the opportunity to bid for Paramount and get rich by riding on the stock.

"Don't worry about it. I have someone to help me deal with it. If you have some spare money, I can help you deal with it..."

Ronald smiled. He took two sums of personal money and gave them to Bannon and Donna to handle respectively. Bannon was a typical stock investor who relied on information and had called him many times. Donna used scientific formulas. The merger of three listed companies this time had many opportunities for dramatic stock price changes, which just met the requirements.

Anyway, for him, this little money is just for fun. Since Ed Bastian said so, he must have had some thoughts, so let him buy a share. His lawyer will definitely help him with the specific operation, and it will never violate the various regulations of the SEC.

"Ronald, the commander-in-chief is looking for you..."

As they were talking, Richard quickly ran in, pushed the phone in front of Ronald, and pressed the call button.

"I'm Ronald, His Excellency the President..." Ronald didn't expect that President William would come to him in person.

"It's me, William Ronald. I heard that the Philadelphia Story you filmed has... a plot? Rodham and I both want to do something for those people. Can you show it to me at the White House before the end of the month? If it's good, I'll speak well of your movie at the press conference..."

"Of course, Mr. President... I will bring a copy to show you..." Ronald was extremely happy. It seems that President William knew that the Elephant Party did nothing to... during the previous two terms in the White House. This time he wanted to use the movie to secretly criticize the Elephant Party.

"By the way, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington are the male protagonists, right? Rodham really wants to meet them..."

"I'll call them. They'll be very happy to have the President and his wife as their audience..."

Damn, why does the First Lady like to meet handsome celebrities?
Ronald put down the phone and called Tom Hanks, "Have you ever been to the White House?"