The employee from the advertisement department said, “Leader, all the public service advertisements in the country are like that. It’s easy to understand. If not, it will be shouting a slogan. Or it could be some shocking statistics, saying how many people don’t have access to electricity, saying how much loss results from every watt wastage. We want to be creative, too, but it can’t be done. This is already the limit of public service advertisements!”
Wang Shuixin said furiously, “Even if you can’t do it well, you have to do it well. Why are you making excuses?”
The person remained silent for a moment, “Leader, it’s our responsibility. We will think of something again.”
“There’s no time anymore! Didn’t you hear what I just said? There has to be an outcome today, and it has to be done today!” Wang Shuixin said, “I know that public service advertisements are at a bottleneck, but only with a bottleneck can you break through. The higher-ups have such a request for our channel. This is a policy-based advertisement; there can be no mistakes! I’m not asking about anything else, nor reasons. I just want to see a result. I want to see creativity! Or else the higher-ups will not pass it!”
It was pointless pinning his hope on the advertisement department. They had handed more than ten drafts over the past month, but all of them were rejected by the higher-ups. Wang Shuixin said to everyone, “I called everyone here to help brainstorm. Whoever has a good idea or creativity, you can speak up!” It could be seen that he was anxious, too. If they could not complete a task that had governmental implications, then everyone would suffer when the higher-ups demanded an answer!
Jiang Fen asked, “How many seconds does it need to be?”
Wang Shuixin said, “There’s no restriction, but according to usual practices, it has to be within 15 seconds. If it is a longer public service advertisement, it’s best it doesn’t exceed 20 seconds.”
Jiang Fen suggested, “Why don’t we be creative on the advertising tagline? I have a pretty good one, ‘Saving, the path to the continuation of life’.”
Wang Shuixin shook his head, “No, that’s still too common.”
Wang Meng said, “What about a witty tagline? Gentlemen have manners; be a man when using electricity.”
“It’s too uncommon.” Wang Shuixin said, “The higher-ups want creativity, not something uncommon. Creativity is something that will light up the eyes of others, or something no one can think of.” As he spoke, he got irritated, “Can you broaden your minds? We have so many capable people in our Arts Channel, yet we are stumped by a public service advertisement? Can’t you come up with any good ideas?”
Another segment team’s person-in-charge gave a wry smile, “Leader, we do administrative work. Creativity isn’t our forte. If the advertisement department can’t think of something, there’s not much hope for us.”
Wang Shuixin said angrily, “You have to think of something, even if there’s no hope! Are you going to be shouldering the responsibility for failing the task?”
The person-in-charge had been joking, but with this retort, he did not dare to say another word.
Following that, others from a few segment teams suggested their ideas, but Wang Shuixin was unsatisfied by them. They were all denied. No creativity!
However, everyone felt helpless.