Chapter 65: Baking Creativity

"Violent Monkey?"

Cindy was still mumbling about this nickname, while Jimmy and Phoebe had already rolled up their sleeves and assumed a boxing stance.

"Look at your stiff footwork, kid. You dare to boast in front of me like this?"

Jimmy could tell from Phoebe's movements that this guy hadn't trained much. He probably just played basketball casually. If he collided on a football field, he'd fly around like a balloon pricked with a needle.

Yet Phoebe was quite confident and even provocatively extended his leg to imitate a Muay Thai kick.

Seeing this opening, Jimmy was not going to let it slide and immediately threw a flurry of punches!

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Phoebe was forced back by the speed of Jimmy's punches and stumbled, falling to the ground, while Jimmy jumped onto him, flailing his arms and shouting while swinging punches.

"Yeah! Hey! Uh! Ha!"

Cindy finally understood why Jimmy was called the "Violent Monkey."

Looking at Phoebe, who was now begging for mercy, everyone silently grinned at how hard he had talked earlier and how humbled he looked now. Only Maronii and Torian felt utterly embarrassed.

"Ah!" The next moment, Torian charged over, swinging his fist towards Ethan's face!

"Boss!" Cindy noticed immediately and tried to push Ethan away, but it was too late.

Everyone else also saw this scene, watching it unfold like a spectator at a fight, and nobody warned Ethan. Maroney was even excited, eagerly waiting to see Ethan fall and cry.

But in the next second, Ethan slightly turned his head, swiftly throwing a right punch before Torian's fist could reach him, taking advantage of his longer reach to hit Torian squarely in the face.

"Bang!" Torian instantly collapsed, knocked out, his glasses flying three meters away.

"Is that all?" Ethan scoffed, then turned to Maroni.

"This has nothing to do with me! Ethan, this is the Somer family's territory; you can't just hit people!" Maroney retreated a couple of steps, fear evident in his voice.

Ethan, however, paid no mind and stepped forward. After all, whether he took out one or two, he might as well deal with them both and make them leave.

"Secretary! Secretary!" Seeing this,Maroney immediately cried out for help, and soon the meeting room door was pushed open...

The secretary rescued Maroney, preventing Ethan from having his way. However, after having security drag away the two embarrassing individuals, Maroney had no choice but to withdraw from this advertising competition.

Meanwhile, Gilmer, who had been watching, called over a secretary from his team and whispered a few words to her.

The secretary nodded and walked out of the meeting room.

With the warm-up boxing match concluded, the advertising competition finally entered its formal process.

Hengmei Advertising was the first to enter the president's office to present their ideas. During this time, the meeting room was quite dull.

After waiting for twenty minutes, the secretary returned to call away the IPG team.

Cindy was rubbing Ethan's arms, waiting for the four companies to finish their presentations, and finally heard the secretary's voice.

"Supreme Creativity, it's your turn."

Ethan opened his eyes, straightened his suit, exchanged a glance with Jimmy, and then followed the secretary into the office.

As soon as they entered, they saw several people in chairs chatting, discussing previous ideas.

An old man with gray hair sat in the center, silent, while a slick-haired young Somer next to him listened to his subordinates' discussions.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." Ethan confidently walked up to the blackboard and picked up a pen, greeting the executives.

"You're... Ethan from Supreme Creativity?" The young Somer brushed his hair back, leaning back in his chair, crossing his legs in a nonchalant manner.

"That's right."

"So what's your idea?" The young Somer seemed to lack patience, while the old Somer continued to squint, as if he were resting or dozing off.

"Before I present the idea, let me ask a question first." Ethan didn't let the young Somer take the lead but reclaimed control of the conversation. Seeing everyone look at him with curiosity, he spoke up, "Have you all read the recent article in Reader's Digest? The one about tobacco..."

"What's that?" The young Somer shrugged, and the executive beside him reminded, "'Tobacco Is Eating You Alive,' that article."

"Exactly! I brought it with me." As soon as Ethan finished speaking, Cindy smiled and handed the already opened copies of Reader's Digest to the executives.

Under the charm of the beautiful assistant, these executives didn't refuse and picked it up to take a look.

In fact, everyone had heard of or seen this article to some extent, except for the young Somer.

This article had become a focal point of discussion in the tobacco industry recently. Given Reader's Digest's widespread circulation, most households subscribed to it, so an article opposing tobacco naturally resonated with many housewives.

This directly led to a further decline in cigarette sales, and the executives had been troubled by the declining sales curve for days.

"So? What does this have to do with us?"

The young Somer glanced over the pages, then immediately received a glare from his father and straightened up in his seat.

"Of course it matters! In fact, Reader's Digest has helped you!" Ethan shook his head, "No, not just Reader's Digest; the FTC investigation has also helped you."

What he referred to was the 'Smoking Is Hazardous to Health' report released in the United States in 1964.

"Why do you say that?" The old Somer suddenly asked, sounding confused. Ethan placed his hands on the table: "Because it made you realize that whenever health is linked to tobacco, it will only evoke thoughts of cancer and death."

"Should we thank them for that?" The old Somer's voice had a slight rasp, sounding like metal grinding.

"Absolutely! Mr. Somer, because if you can't use it, neither can any other tobacco company," Ethan smiled. "Let me ask a few more questions: how do you produce cigarettes?"

"I don't know." The young Somer blurted out, only for the old Somer to chastise him, "What a shame!"

Then he proceeded to recount in detail his company's cigarette production process: "We cultivate pest-free tobacco seeds, plant them under the sun in North Carolina, grow, harvest, process, and roast them."

"Yes! That's it!" Ethan's expression grew excited as he interrupted the old Somer, "Roasting—that's the selling point."

"But other companies roast their tobacco as well," an executive frowned.

"No, no, no!" Ethan leaned in, like a lion, scanning the crowd with a powerful gaze: "It's different... because happy times are roasted!"

This pun caused everyone to take a deep breath.

At the same time, they realized what Ethan's true advertising creativity core really was.

In short, Ethan's advertising strategy was to shift from describing the selling point to describing feelings, comparing roasting to a sense of happiness. It represented both the sensation of smoking and implied that tobacco was blessed.

Other advertising companies often focused on promoting brand strength and history, using as many images and lines as possible to suggest tobacco. But Ethan completely discarded these; he presented more of a state, an ideal sense of happiness.

Just like Ethan said, didn't everyone know the dangers of cigarettes?

No, everyone was well aware. But even with this knowledge, they still indulged, because why?

Because when they fell into troubles, those without many outlets could briefly find happiness through tobacco, even if it was a harmful kind of happiness.

Once they understood this point, the executives who had initially looked down on him suddenly grew serious because the wording indeed managed to both avoid and mention the issue just right, skillfully skirting the edge of the ban. Moreover, this line was worth savoring. If their brand of cigarettes adopted it first, it would effectively plant this phrase in users' minds.

Subsequent companies using a similar concept would be deemed as following the trend, as copycats.

The advertising industry is like that; it's not difficult to come up with creativity; the hard part is how to think of advertisements that are missing in the market while hitting the user's needs first.

Jimmy also smiled and looked at the executives and the old Somer himself: "Gentlemen, I think it's unnecessary to explain what just happened, right?"

...

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