"Holy crap, Zongsheng Beverage is really going all out this time, with an endorsement fee of a whopping 120 million yuan?"

"What is Zong Li, that crazy woman, trying to do? How are we supposed to live on such advertising fees?"

"He's just a sports star, is it really necessary to make such a big fuss about him?"

When Zongsheng Group announced the renewal of its advertising contract with Leiming, the entire industry was stunned.

This news was like a bombshell, causing a huge uproar.

Many people found this endorsement deal unbelievable, after all, it was a whopping 120 million yuan in real money. An ordinary person probably couldn't earn that much even in two lifetimes. But for Lei Ming, he only needed to cooperate with Zong Sheng to shoot a few commercials each year to easily earn this money. How could this not make people envious?

Moreover, Lei Ming's identity is rather special. No matter how well he plays football, he is still just a Chinese American. No matter how much money he is offered, he will not come to China to spend it. This has given many opponents an opportunity!

Many industry peers have jumped out to criticize Zong Li, this young woman, for being too willful and reckless, raising the endorsement fee so high all at once, which is simply disrupting the market order!

After all, although there are no explicit standards in various industries, there are still unspoken rules. Zongsheng's sudden move caught many of its peers off guard.

Suddenly, Zongsheng Beverage became the target of public criticism, and online opinions surged.

A barrage of negative reviews and criticisms poured in, plunging Zongsheng Group into an unprecedented predicament.

Competitors seized this opportunity and launched a fierce attack on Zongsheng Beverage, attempting to weaken their market share.

Some people have publicly accused Zongsheng Beverage of attracting celebrities with high endorsement fees while ignoring the quality and innovation of the products themselves.

Others questioned Zong Li's decision-making ability, believing that she was only pursuing short-term sensationalism without considering the company's long-term development, and was simply like a spendthrift.

Even worse, some started spreading rumors and defaming Zongsheng Beverage's brand image, causing great distress to consumers.

Faced with such a massive public opinion offensive, Zongsheng Group had no choice but to urgently activate its crisis public relations plan.

They established a dedicated team to actively respond to concerns from all parties, while strengthening communication with the media and the public to clarify the facts and safeguard the company's reputation.

Fame and fortune are a double-edged sword. Sometimes they can make a pig fly to the sky, but other times they can drag a pig that is high above the world down to the bottom.

Zong Li and Zhai Tianlin may have anticipated some backlash within the industry, but she truly didn't expect the backlash to be so strong that it would implicate the company founded by her father.

When Wahaha founder Zong was asked by reporters in a public setting whether he knew about Zong Li's actions and what his opinion was, he smiled and told the camera:

“Nowadays, some people like to do things based on rumors, saying that Zongsheng Beverage has been burning through my money all along. That’s just nonsense.”

“Here, I want to clarify for my daughter. Although she took some money from me in the early stages of founding Zongsheng, she has not taken a single penny since then. In fact, at the end of last year, she even returned the money with interest.”

"Whatever decisions Zongsheng makes, there must be a professional team behind them offering advice and suggestions."

"All I can say is that everything that exists has its reason, and young people should still have some spirit of innovation and breakthrough!"

Although Zong Zong couldn't understand the situation surrounding his daughter, he was very clear that she was definitely not some kind of money-giving girl. If there was no profit to be gained, why would she pay such a high price?

On the other side, Zong Li smiled happily after seeing what her father said to the media.

Even when facing pressure from within the industry, she is fearless as long as her father is there to support her.

"Tianlin, what's the current public opinion like?"

Zong Li takes online public opinion very seriously because she knows that in the internet age, a bad word could destroy the Zongsheng brand image that she has worked so hard to build. Therefore, she attaches great importance to this and has even set up a public relations team to protect the company's image day and night.

Zhai Tianlin was also very worried at this moment. His usual smile was gone. Holding some reports, he shook his head and said, "At present, there is still no improvement. There are too many jealous people, to the point that their mentality has become distorted. They say that Lei Ming is just a Chinese and does not deserve so much endorsement fee at all."

"And there were even more offensive things they said!"

Zhai Tianlin did not expect that the announcement of his new endorsement with Lei Ming would elicit such a strong reaction. Although Zongsheng Beverage had indeed become famous during this period, its reputation seemed to be being swayed by others. He felt that if things continued like this, they might be in great danger.

The current public relations team is working around the clock, but they are still unable to withstand the power of public opinion. It's really hard to say whether they can protect the company's image.

Zong Li looked at the reports and sighed, "It's alright. Just use some public relations tactics to keep the public opinion in check. I believe the public opinion will calm down after a while. We have nothing to hide, and we haven't done anything wrong, so there's no need to worry too much."

"At this point, this is the only way."

"Alright, go back and get some rest. There's a Thunder game tonight, aren't you going to watch it? I don't want to hear about someone dying from watching a game the next day! I'll stay here a little longer."

"Hehe, thank you very much, President Zong!"

Zhai Tianlin hasn't slept for a day and a night because of public relations issues. Although he's very tired, he's still persevering. Of course, if possible, he won't miss the Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace match tonight.

Despite the fact that this match is clearly between two teams of vastly different strengths, Arsenal is unlikely to go all out against Crystal Palace, given the various cup competitions that await them afterward. Wenger will certainly have his assistants arrange the players' rest time accordingly.

The games might not be exciting, but he just doesn't want to miss any of Lei Ming's games and exciting moments.

So even if he was very sleepy, he would still watch the whole game.

Zong Li clearly understood what this guy was thinking, so she simply told him to go back to sleep. Anyway, there were people in the public relations department working in shifts 24 hours a day, so even if Zhai Tianlin was there, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Of course, if Zhai Tianlin isn't there, she'll need to stay at the company a little longer to handle any emergencies.

After hearing Zong Zong's words, Zhai Tianlin was finally able to go back and get a good night's sleep.