Chapter 384 Tit for Tat

Ford acted quickly. On October 10, EVO was officially launched in North America. On October 1, public relations manager Hillman reported to his superiors that BYD was using Transformers toys for promotion. On October 10, Ford blasted BYD for unfair competition in the Chicago Tribune.

This newspaper is the largest newspaper in Chicago and the core newspaper of the second largest newspaper group in the United States. Its daily circulation ranks third in the country. It is considered one of the highest quality newspapers in the country, on par with The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and has considerable influence in the political and economic circles of the United States.

BYD currently has only one office in the United States, which is mainly responsible for connecting with American dealers that have signed contracts and collecting some feedback information from the American market.

Now that they were suddenly targeted by a giant crocodile, the office manager was a little panicked and reported the matter to the Hong Kong headquarters on the same day.

Fang Hexuan was also very emotional and once again experienced the difficulties and troubles of car manufacturing.

Even though he invested 50 to 60 billion Hong Kong dollars and prepared a large number of marketing methods for it, when it really came to listing the car on the market, he realized that he had to grit his teeth and fight his competitors to the death.

Although he didn't know what specific actions Ford would take next, with his vision from his previous life, Fang Hexuan could roughly guess what methods the other party would use.

Given the huge gap in strength between the two sides, BYD can only focus on defense for the time being and not take the initiative to provoke trouble, but is not afraid of trouble either.

Therefore, Fang Hexuan gave BYD two instructions:
First, spend money to actively respond and explain in newspapers such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times to clarify that BYD and Pokémon are just a simple cooperative relationship.

Second, ask Maple Leaf’s American legal team to represent Ford in suing the company for maliciously defaming BYD.

In addition, Fang Hexuan also called BYD's public relations manager to the Global Building and gave him some personal instructions.

As a fake car fan in his previous life, he also knew some inside information about the global automotive industry, such as the top ten scandals in the automotive industry.

Among them, the incident about John DeLorean, former vice president of General Motors and father of Pontiac GTO, being arrested by the FBI for smuggling cocaine in late October 1982 caused a sensation around the world at the time.

Fang Hexuan asked BYD's public relations manager to fly to the United States, and then anonymously reported the DeLorean drug trafficking scandal to several American newspapers and TV stations in advance.

It's bound to happen anyway, so we might as well use it to our advantage and sacrifice DeLorean to help muddy the waters of American public opinion, which is another way to resolve Ford's smear campaign against BYD.

After sending the public relations manager away, Fang Hexuan sat in the boss chair and rubbed his temples, feeling a wave of annoyance in his heart.

He wasn't sure that these moves would be enough to resist Ford's attack, but having a plan was better than having no plan at all.

Moreover, he once again felt the Americans' aggressiveness and sensitivity. Their competitiveness and risk awareness are really strong.

I asked my assistant to bring in a cup of coffee, and when I was halfway through it, someone knocked on the door.

The visitors were none other than DreamWorks Animation's general manager Jiang Weichao and editor-in-chief Ma Rongcheng.

Originally, when this animation club was first established, there was no general manager position. The editor-in-chief at the time was Jiang Weichao, and Ma Rongcheng was a editor who joined later.

After half a year of preparation and development, DreamWorks Animation is now second only to Yulang International in terms of the scale of its works, and has also established a branch in Neon.

In order to reward meritorious officials, Jiang Weichao left his job and took up a management position, and Ma Rongcheng, who was most favored by Fang Hexuan, naturally took over the position of editor-in-chief.

After the two of them tasted the coffee, Fang Hexuan began to praise:

"I have read the performance report you submitted three days ago. Your performance is good. You will definitely get a generous year-end bonus at the end of the year." Jiang Weichao was still relatively calm, but the relatively young Ma Rongcheng could not resist the boss's compliments and his mouth almost stretched to his ears.

"Thank you Mr. Fang!"

Fang Hexuan smiled slightly, nodded and said:

"I guess you two have come together, so there must be good news. I'm all ears!"

The two people sitting opposite each other looked at each other, and then Jiang Weichao took over the topic and said:
"Mr. Fang, we are here mainly to report to you on the development of the animation club in the past six months, and we also want to hear your suggestions for us."

Fang Hexuan nodded silently in his heart. Jiang Weichao was indeed more suitable for management. He could flatter without being blatant, which showed that he was also a man with a clear mind.

"Well, let's talk about it first."

Jiang Weichao straightened his body, made himself sit more solemnly, and then said:

"So far, the Hong Kong branch of the Animation Club is serializing works such as "Chinese Heroes", "Tangmen", and "Swordsman". The projects that have been approved include "Storm and Cloud", "Fist of Fury", "Son of the Emperor", "Legend of the Emperor", and "Young and Dangerous".

"In addition, we are inviting and poaching Shangguan Xiaobao, Shangguan Xiaoqiang, Shangguan Xiaowei, Qiu Fulong and others to join the company, and plan to comprehensively enhance the creative strength of the Hong Kong branch."

"Also, according to Mr. Fang's suggestion, we are also communicating with famous martial arts writers such as Jin Yong and Gu Long, hoping to obtain the comic adaptation rights of their novels."

"Next is the situation of the Neon Branch. According to your request, we hired Masami Kurumada, Akira Toriyama, Buronson, and Hojo Tsukasa from Elite Agency at high salaries. Buronson has serialized eight issues of Fist of the North Star based on the script we gave him, and Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball will be finished soon. The other two have already started drawing for Saint Seiya and City Hunter."

"In addition to inviting these already famous comic book authors, we also held a youth comic book competition in Neon with a prize pool of up to 1 million yen, with the aim of attracting talented young authors to submit their works to our Neon branch."

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Jiang Weichao talked for more than ten minutes. Fang Hexuan was afraid that he was thirsty, so he raised his hand to interrupt him:

"Okay, that's about all I have to say. You can just know the rest. I'll give you the anime social network. I don't have to ask too many questions, but I care about the final result."

"Understood, Mr. Fang. I will definitely work hard and live up to your trust."

Fang Hexuan nodded slightly, but still added:

"In addition to what you just said, I have a few more words to say."

"You said, we would like you to give us more suggestions."

"Well, in addition to being based in Hong Kong and Japan, the animation club should also have more Chinese elements. For example, pandas in the mainland are very cute and popular all over the world. You can use these animals as prototypes to create some stories suitable for all ages. Also, there are so many mythical beasts and monsters in the Classic of Mountains and Seas passed down by our ancestors. This can definitely expand our imagination."

"Also, I heard that there is a fairy tale king in the mainland named Zheng Yuanjie. You can try to contact him. Although his works are basically only for children, who says that DreamWorks Animation Club only draws works that teenagers like?"

“Also, we can establish communication channels with the Shanghai Animation Film Studio to see if there is room for cooperation between the two sides.”

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(End of this chapter)