Chapter 149
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: The Most Anticipated PSA
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From 0-Years-Old Superstar Chapter 149
“Ready, action!”
The children decided to enter Room 1, the farthest from the fire. Na Jin placed his hand on the doorknob.
“Ouch, hot!”
He cried out at the searing temperature. Na Jin waved his hand in the air before pouring bottled water over his palm. Seeing Na Jin’s deeply contorted face, Kim Jukyung asked in a worried voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“The doorknob’s hot.”
At those words, Kim Hanseok remembered something. An action movie he had watched with his dad. A chill ran up from the tips of his toes.
“Hyung, hyung. It can’t be hot. They say it’ll explode if air gets in!”
Kim Hanseok exclaimed, startled.
“What?”
“If you open the door, air gets in and it’ll explode. I saw it in a movie! There might be a fire inside!”
At Kim Hanseok’s words, Na Jin and Kim Jukyung backed away from the door to Room 1. The smoke was coming from over there… there couldn’t be a fire in here… And yet, the thought of opening the door to Room 1 never crossed their minds.
“…Let’s try another room.”
Na Jin and Kim Hanseok nodded at Kim Jukyung’s suggestion. Na Jin stood before the door to Room 3, away from Room 1. The doorknob, which he touched lightly with the back of his hand, wasn’t hot. It was cold.
“Is it okay?”
“Yeah.”
Na Jin gripped the handle of the tightly shut karaoke room door.
He swallowed hard. The hand gripping the handle was clammy. His heart pounded. Would this room be okay? An explosion—what a terrifying word. Na Jin’s hand on the doorknob trembled.
Na Jin, an elementary school student, was no superhero. Even with his firm resolve to meet his waiting parents, he became just an ordinary boy again in the face of another fear. This time, the other two children helped him.
Kim Hanseok, who was covering his mouth with a wet tissue, looked at Na Jin. He could see Na Jin's trembling hand. The script had said something, but nothing came to mind now. Only the memory of his hyung's shining eyes remained clear.
‘This time, I’ll…!’
Kim Hanseok reached out and took Na Jin’s hand.
“Let’s open it together, hyung.”
Kim Jukyung placed her hand on top of theirs.
“That’s right, Jin.”
“…Okay.”
Feeling the warmth of their hands on his, Na Jin thought. He couldn’t stay here forever. Even though he was scared, he had worked hard to get this far. He wanted to go home with his friends.
The fear that had filled Na Jin’s eyes deepened once more with resolve. Seeing his dependable face, the other children smiled.
The children tightened their grip on the doorknob.
The door to Room 3 swung wide open.
* * *
“Good work, everyone!”
After all the filming was done, a firefighter who had joined late due to a sudden dispatch watched with a dazed expression as Seojun exchanged phone numbers with the child actors.
Behind him, the staff and employees of Cloud held Seojun’s autographs with proud looks on their faces.
“Oh, are you really the actor Lee Seojun?”
“Yes. He might be in this public service announcement.”
“…Might be?”
The planning team leader smiled.
“We still have the screening at the Fire Department.”
*They’re the client, so the final decision is theirs,* he thought, swallowing the rest of his words. The firefighter, who seemed to understand, smiled brightly.
“The Fire Department will approve it in a heartbeat.”
The planning team leader thought so, too.
* * *
Two weeks later, in a conference room at the Fire Department.
Officials and high-ranking officers had gathered to watch the public service announcement video produced by the advertising agency, Cloud.
“A web drama? Will that even be effective for promotion?”
“Why didn’t you just find a celebrity willing to donate their talent and film like you usually do?”
People who disliked change voiced their complaints. The planning team leader from Cloud and the public relations manager from the Fire Department grinned. They never knew being the subordinate holding an unbeatable hand could be this enjoyable.
The PR manager nudged the planning team leader’s side.
‘Still, you could have told me, couldn’t you? I wanted to get an autograph!’
‘Cocoa Entertainment insisted on keeping it a secret… It would have been a disaster if his appearance fell through.’
The planning team leader, who had framed the autograph he received from Seojun, whispered back.
Meanwhile, the complainers quieted down one by one. No matter their complaints, the final product was already made. The people who had decided to oppose it after watching the video crossed their arms and stared at the screen.
The PR manager, who had been assessing the situation, spoke up.
“We will now watch the public service announcement video. This PSA is divided into a version for TV commercials and a version for N-tube upload. We will begin with the TV commercial version.”
As the PR manager finished speaking, a video appeared on the screen. Three children were singing in a small room. A civil servant who had been complaining asked his subordinate.
“Did they say it was targeting children?”
“Yes. That’s why they cast three child actors.”
“Is it a child actor I might kn—…?”
The civil servant, who was about to ask about the cast, widened his eyes.
The face of the boy holding the microphone. It was a face he had never expected to see here.
Not only him, but everyone in the conference room was stunned as they watched the video.
“That… That’s…”
“For real?”
The people who had crossed their arms like a sturdy shield unconsciously unfolded them and leaned forward. Some even shot up from their seats. Seeing the Fire Department officials watching the video with expressions of disbelief, the planning team leader clenched his fists.
After the video was played a few times, it was selected as Cloud’s public service announcement without a single objection.
* * *
“Passed in one go! No revisions!”
“Waaaaah!!!”
The planning team leader announced upon returning to the company after the Fire Department screening. The employees cheered wholeheartedly.
With commercials, it was extremely rare to please a client on the first try. In fact, it was true for almost any creative field with a client, not just advertising.
Revisions, and revisions, and more revisions.
And finally, reaching a state of enlightenment when the client said, ‘The first one was better,’ was a part of daily life for the employees at Cloud.
Kim Jihyun, who had looked completely drained after seven rounds of revisions, had once said.
“Our company name… Cloud. I'm starting to think it's not the fluffy thing in the sky, but a reference to how we're always getting 'rolled' by our clients.”
“…I think you’re right.”
The planning team leader, who had just returned from his sixth client meeting, had agreed with a haggard face.
That felt like just yesterday, but to pass without any revisions!
The employees cheered with genuine delight. The planning team leader chuckled. There was still more good news.
“The boss said we can go home early today!”
“The boss is the best!”
A second round of cheers erupted.
“Let’s finish up what we’re doing and head home!”
“Okay!”
The employees got to work, their eyes blazing. They had set aside a generous amount of time for revisions on the Fire Department PSA, but since there were no revisions, there wasn’t much for them to do. The employees who had turned off their computers quickly packed their things.
*Tiring-*
The planning team leader’s phone rang as he was packing with a cheerful face. It was a text notification.
“Huh? A tex—…”
*Tiring-*
*Tiring-*
*Tiring-*
It wasn’t a phone call, but his phone kept ringing. The team leader picked it up, a look of confusion on his face. After checking the messages, he froze.
*Tiring-*
*Tiring-*
*Tiring-*
The text notifications continued in succession, almost like a ringing phone. Kim Jihyun, who had finished packing, asked the frozen team leader.
“Team Leader, who is it?”
“Shouldn’t you answer it quickly?”
With a blank expression, the team leader showed his phone to the employees.
[Hello. This is KBC Broadcasting Station…]
[A pleasure. This is MBS…]
[This is SBC Broadcasting Station…]
[This is TVM…]
Even as the employees read the messages, more kept arriving.
[Regarding actor Lee Seojun’s commercial…]
[We absolutely must have it on our channel…]
The employees’ eyes widened.
“Oh my god… oh my god…”
“How did they find out?”
At Kim Jihyun’s words, the employees and the team leader all pictured the magnificent Fire Department building. It seemed that as soon as the meeting ended, everyone had contacted their acquaintances in the broadcasting industry.
The text notifications were still ringing as the team leader wiped his dry face.
To broadcast a public service announcement, they had to buy ad time from a broadcasting station. By law, each station had a required ratio of PSAs to air, so the slots were cheaper than commercial ad time.
“I was just about to start buying ad slots…”
Since they had a set budget, he had planned to pick one of the three major terrestrial broadcasters and make an inquiry.
Cloud usually contacted KBC first. As if they knew this, messages from other broadcasters were piling up.
KBC, not wanting to be left out, was also sending a steady stream of texts.
“At this rate, instead of us paying them, won’t the broadcast stations be paying us?”
“…I think that’s what’s going to happen.”
They probably couldn't pay them directly, but they might offer something of similar value, right? Faced with a situation they had never experienced before, the employees of the advertising agency, Cloud, gulped.
As the text alerts continued to chime, the planning team leader spoke carefully.
“Looks like we’re not going home early after all, huh?”
The employees, who had more or less expected this, sighed and put their bags back down.
Seeing his dejected staff unpacking, the planning team leader thought he should suggest a bonus to the CEO.
* * *
Seojun’s and Seo Eunhye’s eyes widened.
“All the broadcast stations?”
“Yup.”
“Not just the major networks?”
At Seojun’s question, An Daho gave an awkward laugh. The news from Cloud had stunned Cocoa Entertainment as well.
They had expected various parties to be interested, but the list of broadcast stations that had actually made deals left Team 2 speechless.
“…Almost all of them?”
“My goodness.”
Seojun, who had been blinking, looked down and read the paper again.
[KBC, SBC, MBC, TVM, OCM, general programming, cable…]
After reading the list, Seojun spoke.
“But is it okay for it to air this much?”
“Well, commercials do air on one channel and then another… but not broadcast this widely. It costs too much.”
“Don’t PSAs have a small budget? If they buy this many slots, won’t they run out of money…?”
An Daho laughed at Seojun’s concern.
“Everyone’s scrambling to offer it to them at incredibly low prices.”
Honestly, the prices were so low that Cloud was tearing its hair out. They were also intimidated by the other benefits being offered on top of the discounts. The CEO of Cloud had sighed.
‘If this were because of our own merit, we could just pick the best offer. But these proposals are for actor Lee Seojun, not for our company.’
Ultimately, it had reached a point where they had to ask for Cocoa Entertainment’s opinion.
Cocoa Entertainment also deliberated.
Even the best words become tiresome if heard too often, and even if it was ‘Lee Seojun,’ if he appeared nonstop on every channel, people would surely get sick of it.
‘There’s also the risk of overexposure…’
For that reason, Cocoa Entertainment proposed buying ad time on as many stations as possible, but at a lower frequency than other PSAs.
The broadcast stations agreed. It was a better method for everyone to coordinate and air the ad at different times rather than one station monopolizing it.
The problem was the longer, N-tube version of the video. It was too long to air as a commercial, but the broadcast station execs—no, the people who saw the video—clung to their pant legs and begged, as the planning team leader had cheerfully recounted.
In the end, the persistent broadcast execs agreed to donate most of the advertising revenue from the slots before and after the N-tube video to the Fire Department in exchange for airing it.
‘Though the broadcast stations will pocket all the ad revenue from the other commercials bundled with it.’
While An Daho was recalling the conclusion of the negotiations, Seo Eunhye asked him.
“Daho. So when will the first commercial air?”
“It’ll be on the KBC2 channel. This Sunday at 7 PM. And the N-tube version will come out at 8:40 PM.”
“I’ll have to watch it then.”
“Yeah!”
While Seojun and Seo Eunhye were telling their acquaintances about the commercial, each broadcast station began to release press materials.
[Actor Na Jin to Appear in Fire Department PSA!]
[Actor Na Jin (Lee Seojun) to Appear in PSA!]
[Actor Lee Seojun’s First Commercial to Air on KBC2, Sunday at 7 PM!]
- Na Jin is back! I was worried since he hasn't done anything since the play!
= 222 I've been waiting for so long!
= ? Isn't it Lee Seojun? He's been plenty active?
= (whispers) It's part of the roleplay
= Ah... sry
- So is it Na Jin or Lee Seojun? lol
- lol An actor whose stage name and real name are both famous
- Look at KBC getting all excited. You'd think they were promoting a drama.
[Actor Na Jin (Lee Seojun)'s Commercial, MBS Monday at 10!]
[Actor Lee Seojun (Na Jin), SBC Tuesday at 9!]
- …Just give us a schedule. We'll find it ourselves.
= 222 Give us the schedule.
- If it's a Fire Department PSA, will it be on the Fire Dept N-tube channel?
= Doesn't look like it's up yet
= Hope it's up soon!
[KBC Schedule Change! A 10-Minute Short Film?]
- ??? The PSA is 10 minutes long?
= Isn't it a public service video?
= What's a public service video?
= I dunno. If it's short, it's a commercial, if it's long, it's a video, I guess?
- But if it's 10 minutes, that means Seojun acted in it, right? I'm so excited!
= Nah, Na Jin
= Na Jin, Lee Seojun, whatever lol
- The assistant director for this is Kim Soohan!
= Kim Soohan?
= Na Jin's first fan!
= …No way
#