Chapter 55 The Birth of a divine beauty
Once Choi Ji-yeon left the office with the four girls, Min Xizhen could no longer hold back.
"Chairman Jiang, are you joking? You're bringing in a twenty-seven-year-old 'elderly person' to debut as an idol? Are you sick or am I sick?"
Min Xizhen had a fiery temper. She even dared to scold Li Xiuman and Kim Young-min directly. Jiang Shu had painted a grand vision for her, and then brought in two so-called trainees?
The 94-liner who was twenty-four was barely tolerable, especially since IVE already had top age differences with Xu Suizhen and Kim Garam.
But what in the world was this 91-liner Bae Joo-hyun?
Twenty-seven years old?
She was three years older than Jiang Shu!
"Don't be so anxious, Director Min." Jiang Shu, however, remained calm. Min Xizhen's reaction was completely within his expectations. "Haven't you noticed she's very beautiful?"
"What's the use of being beautiful? Can beauty offset her age?" Min Xizhen said, displeased.
"It can," Jiang Shu said with a chuckle.
Min Xizhen: "?"
"Are you serious?" Min Xizhen asked, frowning at Jiang Shu.
"Of course." Jiang Shu raised his head slightly. "Don't you think she's very beautiful, Director Min?"
This was the second time Jiang Shu had mentioned Bae Joo-hyun's beauty.
Min Xizhen seriously recalled Bae Joo-hyun's appearance just now. It seemed... possibly... perhaps... she was indeed very beautiful?
The sensitivity to looks among the same gender isn't that high. A handsome man in a woman's eyes isn't necessarily handsome in a man's eyes, and a beautiful woman in a man's eyes might not be considered beautiful by a woman.
But Bae Joo-hyun was indeed beautiful in every sense of the word.
"But just being beautiful isn't enough to convince me." Min Xizhen still had a big problem with her being twenty-seven.
"Look, you're rushing again." Jiang Shu chuckled, pointing to the opposite side of the desk. "Let's sit down and talk slowly."
Min Xizhen's brows were so furrowed they could have pinched Jiang Shu to death, but she still suppressed her displeasure and sat down.
She wanted to hear how Jiang Shu would... persuade her.
"I have an idea." Jiang Shu held up a finger. "I call it the divine beauty Project."
divine beauty?
Min Xizhen didn't speak, but judging by her slightly relaxed brows, she had developed some interest.
"We all know that the root of idol culture lies in the visual and auditory dual-experience stage concept proposed by your company's Chairman Li Xiuman."
"But in my opinion, in today's era of developed internet, the visual effect has already surpassed the auditory."
"Auditory is essentially overlapping with singers, and it relies too much on the work. If the work is good, even if the skill is insufficient, one can still achieve a win by not singing live or semi-singing live."
IVE was like this.
Although Lily was very much a supermodel, the dual centers within the group were not idols with extremely strong hard skills, yet IVE was very popular.
Min Xizhen nodded in agreement.
"The visual effect, however, is different. It doesn't have such high requirements as auditory. A good song is hard to come by, but a good-looking face can be used indefinitely."
"I've studied the process of many fans falling for an idol. Most of them fall for an idol because of their face. An idol with sufficiently high visuals is very easy to attract fans."
"Bae Joo-hyun is indeed very beautiful, but not so beautiful that she's significantly better looking than others. Aesthetics are a very subjective thing. And what does this have to do with the divine beauty you mentioned?" Min Xizhen interrupted Jiang Shu and asked.
"That's what I'm about to say."
Jiang Shu leaned back in his office chair with a chuckle.
"Since aesthetics are a very subjective matter, then why don't we make Bae Joo-hyun's beauty an objective matter?"
Min Xizhen made a gesture indicating she was eager to hear more.
"People have a herd mentality. When we constantly market Bae Joo-hyun as a divine beauty, and highlight Bae Joo-hyun's beauty on stage time and time again, the more people who know her, the more people will acknowledge the title of divine beauty."
The idea Jiang Shu provided actually had many problems, but none of that mattered, because he knew Bae Joo-hyun had a divine beauty bond. As long as her popularity reached the third tier, she could be positioned as a divine beauty at will.
And Red Velvet couldn't reach the third tier?
Are you kidding me? The group with the highest floor in the game?
The minimum is always third tier.
As long as Bae Joo-hyun was within the Red Velvet group, the divine beauty bond would always be active.
Jiang Shu's marketing idea was entirely to fool Min Xizhen. What did he know about operations? But he understood bonds!
Jiang Shu continued to fool Min Xizhen, talking endlessly about his divine beauty Project, regardless of whether it could be realized. He just boasted first.
Although Min Xizhen was an S.M. executive, her position as Art Director was ultimately not like Li Xiuman and Kim Young-min, who had independently operated groups. Although she felt that what Jiang Shu was saying was quite different from how Li Xiuman and Kim Young-min used to operate groups, she didn't detect too many anomalies.
Jiang Shu spent about ten minutes painting a grand divine beauty vision for her, then picked up the cola on the table and took a sip.
"In short, in my opinion, Bae Joo-hyun's age is not a problem at all. Positioning her as the visual even has some advantages, for example, pre-debut marketing."
"You mean... negative publicity?" Min Xizhen immediately thought of negative publicity.
There was no other way. S.M. had been using this tactic since the company's inception. And Bae Joo-hyun's twenty-seven-year-old age was only suitable for this kind of operation.
"Exactly." Jiang Shu nodded with a smile. "If we announce that the leader of the girl group is twenty-seven years old, it will definitely cause an uproar. Then we will keep Bae Joo-hyun's information private until her debut stage amazes everyone!"
"Your idea is good, but have you considered one problem? To achieve the 'amazement' effect you mentioned, it requires not only the cooperation of makeup and styling, but also sufficiently excellent songs."
"Excellent songs, I have them," Jiang Shu said with a smile.
"You already have an idea?" Min Xizhen sat up straight and asked.
"To be precise, they're already produced," Jiang Shu said with a chuckle.
"Let me see!" Min Xizhen stood up with a swish and walked around the desk.
She hadn't expected Jiang Shu to move so quickly; he had even produced the songs?
Jiang Shu woke up the sleeping computer and opened the folder.
Min Xizhen noticed that next to the music library folder, there was a folder named "Red Velvet."
"What does this Red Velvet mean?"
"The name I chose for our group."
"Red Velvet, huh..." Min Xizhen thought the group name was acceptable. Anyway, it was just a name, it didn't matter.
Jiang Shu double-clicked to open the folder, revealing more than ten songs inside.
To be honest, Min Xizhen was stunned when she saw these ten-odd songs.
The group hadn't even been formed yet, and you've already prepared over ten songs?
Jiang Shu didn't notice Min Xizhen's expression and clicked on the debut song he had carefully prepared for Red Velvet.
Thanks to reader Hua Ziqiong for the 500 Qidian coins!