America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 171 Scandal

"When I was in Atlanta, I loved surfing the internet." Martin was actually referring to his past life, but thinking about certain types of messages he saw on the internet, some things transcend national boundaries: "I've noticed something interesting: when male netizens get together to chat, they often end up talking about two things."

A-Jia asked curiously, "Which two items?"

Martin held up one finger: "Women, discussing beautiful women." He then held up a second finger: "Establishing a government, or more precisely, discussing current social issues."

Craven is getting older and spends relatively little time online, but he often hangs out with a bunch of men: "That's right, a group of grown men get together, and the topics are either women or recent hot events."

Aja completely agreed: "When I was young, I often discussed with people online how to get rid of that bastard in the Élysée Palace."

Craven understood Martin's meaning: "Compared to normal social hot topics, the public is actually more interested in the dirt on Washington. Hollywood especially likes to create Washington conspiracy theories. Why? It's not that we are hostile to Washington, but that the audience likes to see these things. Washington is full of shady secrets, and all the dark secrets come from Washington."

Martin said, "If these are released, keyboard warriors, those netizens who like to discuss current events, will definitely pay attention and discuss them, and even actively discuss them with others. If I were a keyboard warrior, I would get excited just thinking about the top-secret dirt on Washington and the Pentagon."

Craven and Aja both laughed.

The former, with extensive experience in film promotion, said: "I've discussed it with people from Warner Bros., and we've divided it into three phases, each lasting fifteen days. To avoid the backlash of viral marketing, we'll connect with the film at the very beginning of the second phase."

"You're all experienced professionals," Martin said, only offering suggestions. "I'm just a keyboard warrior who talks the talk."

A-Jia said, "We hope to attract more keyboard warriors to pay attention to our film."

Martin glanced at the time: "Noon, Smoke House, my treat. The steak and pianist there are pretty good."

Craven asked, "You've taken a liking to the pianist there?"

"This is no joke, the pianist is a man." Martin pointed to his chest: "I'm male, and I like women."

The three of them left Warner Bros. Studios together and went to a restaurant across the street for lunch.

The publicity plan, which involves "seeing from behind the mountain," is being promoted in an orderly manner.

Beyond formal promotion, the first step of the viral marketing plan was officially launched before Christmas.

…………

In late September of this year, the "Iraq Investigation Team," led by the CIA and comprised of 1400 international experts, released a report that yielded no results. This became a key issue in the election between the Democratic and Republican parties, and its repercussions continue to this day.

Although Americans don't care much about things outside North America, the election still caused quite a stir.

On the internet, there are quite a few netizens who search for and pay attention to weapons of mass destruction.

Ted, who works in Manhattan, checks Yahoo! News every day.

Just before the Christmas holidays, Ted was browsing the internet when he suddenly saw news of new weapons of mass destruction prominently displayed on the Yahoo homepage.

"America's Weapons of Mass Destruction Revealed!"

Ted clicked on the webpage, and the bold text under the title immediately caught his eye: It is uncertain whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but the United States is certainly the country with the most weapons of mass destruction in the world.

The article details the three major nuclear test sites in the United States.

Then, a series of secret documents were disclosed.

The documents in the photos were all stamped with "Top Secret".

The contents are all related to the Nevada Test Site, including top-secret information about the military's closure of the Nevada Test Site, such as how nuclear testing led to the disappearance of an Indigenous tribe, and how thousands of residents suffered from cancer, deformities in themselves and their offspring, etc.

The link was followed by a URL, saying that if you wanted to see the details, you could log in to this decryption website.

Conspiracy theories always have a market; even people who don't believe in them will be curious enough to take a look at this kind of content.

Ted immediately clicked on the link, and a website called "Nevada Nuclear Test Declassification" appeared on his computer screen.

The website's homepage features an image of some veterans who served at the test site holding up SOS signs and protesting in Washington, D.C., demanding compensation.

Their names are listed above, along with a video of a veteran named Dave Crete being interviewed by the media.

Dave accused the military of concealing the truth about the nuclear radiation test, which caused them terrible health problems, such as developing a severe lipoma. He even took off his clothes on camera.

Ted almost threw up; the veteran's lipoma on his back was almost the size of a grapefruit!

"This is terrible!" Ted muttered to himself as he continued reading.

The interviews also included residents near the former Nevada Test Site who, due to long-term exposure to radiation, suffered from poor health and had to move away from their hometown.

Below are their medical examination reports, as well as photos of some of the severely affected individuals.

Many people have frightening appearances due to tumor lesions.

Upon seeing this, Ted couldn't resist logging into MSN and forwarding the website to an interest group he had joined.

It's full of young people who care about current social events. In Martin's words, they're all keyboard warriors, and they have the common characteristics of male keyboard warriors all over the world: they like to discuss current social events and give their opinions.

This group is also the most likely to believe in various conspiracy theories.

After posting the link, Ted specifically commented: "Everyone, take a look at this website. It discloses a lot of information about military nuclear tests."

Then he sent the link again.

The group chat suddenly became lively.

Many people went to visit the website.

Just like when a silly netizen in Martin's past life group posts a QR code, you feel restless if you don't look at it out of curiosity.

Another group Ted had joined started flashing a message notification. He opened it and found that someone had sent the same URL link.

This person also posted some pictures and photos that he had not yet seen.

"In the 1990s, personnel from an atomic energy assessment agency went missing in the Nevada Test Site." The person typed quickly: "According to the records, when their bodies were found, they were highly decomposed and had been killed with a sharp instrument. Some photographs were found in the camera they left behind."

Ted clicked on the photo and looked at it carefully. The image was rather blurry, but he could clearly see some deformed people.

"It looks terrifying!"

Are these real?

The group chat was full of all sorts of things, but they all had one thing in common: they all went to those websites to look up information.

Such websites containing shady information have piqued everyone's interest.

Let's come back and discuss this after we've finished reading.

Ted went back to continue looking at the documents, many of which, marked "top secret," mentioned that people were still living in the nuclear test area and that the U.S. Atomic Energy Assessment Agency had lost two groups of front-line collection personnel in the past six years, with the latter group's bodies never being found.

Of course, some people also made the connection: "Could it be that a related movie is about to be released?"

Viral marketing is nothing new.

However, similar news and links appeared on several major portals, large forums, and well-known blogs in North America.

The decryption website spread like a virus among people.

…………

Near Warner Bros. Studios, there is a company that outsources film and television promotion.

In an office that can accommodate nearly twenty people, a publicity team is busy at their computers.

They took on the publicity outsourcing for "The Hills Have Eyes" at the beginning of the month, specifically responsible for online promotion.

The group members primarily promoted the website declassifying Nevada's nuclear tests on portal websites, forums, blogs, and related groups on chat software such as MSN, guiding online public opinion and attracting as many visitors as possible.

Daniel from Warner Bros. came over specifically to take a look.

The team leader reported real-time data to him: "The website officially went live the day before yesterday, and today it has received more than 30 visits."

Daniel asked, "What are your expectations?"

The person in charge thought for a moment and said, "These websites that expose so-called dirty secrets about Washington are particularly attractive. Judging from today's situation, it's not a problem for millions of people to see the website before the movie is released."

Daniel advised, "Maintain a good pace, pay close attention to relevant online developments, and move on to the second phase after the New Year holiday."

Every day, the Nevada nuclear test debunking website is updated with new content.

For example, in 1982, a large number of indigenous people near the nuclear test site sued the Washington authorities and the military, and were ruthlessly suppressed.

Related lawyer's letters and video materials have been exposed.

Warner Bros.' publicity is professional enough and well-prepared; they can even outsource what they can't do themselves.

When it comes to profit, you can always trust the power of capital.

For Christmas, Anne returned to New York, Louise had to spend the holiday with her parents, so Martin had to bring along Old Brooks and Menez to Antonio's Christmas Eve party.

The party required tickets, and Martin and his two companions each brought a bottle of wine.

Antonio sat in front of the Christmas tree on the rooftop, grinning like a super-fat version of Santa Claus.

Martin and his two companions sat at a table with him, and Menez brought over four glasses of wine.

The four of them chatted and drank.

Antonio suddenly said mysteriously, "Have you heard? The Pentagon's nuclear test in Nevada leaked radiation, and thousands of people have gotten cancer, and there are even people with deformities!"

Menezes chimed in automatically, "Yeah, I heard about it. I even checked out that declassified website. Washington and the Pentagon are so corrupt; they don't treat ordinary people like human beings!"

Bruce glanced at Martin and continued, "In the eyes of the upper class, ordinary people are just consumables. If they're gone, they can be remade, and if they can't be remade, there's always a large influx of immigrants."

Antonio asked, "Old Brooks, you were in the military, did the Pentagon really do that?"

"I don't know." Bruce pointed to his head. "If I knew, I would have been shot long ago."

Martin was very curious: "Who told you that?"

Antonio answered first: "I heard it from the three tenants on the first floor; they've been discussing it for the past few days."

Menez recently worked at a Warner Bros. studio: "I heard about it from people in the studio café, so I went online to check it out."

A tenant on the first floor overheard this and came over to join in: "I've started a music tutoring class, and lately all the boys in the class have been talking about this."

A guy passing by chimed in: "Lots of people in my MSN groups are posting this."

Martin thought to himself, "The so-called dirt on Washington and the military is indeed fascinating."

Two updates today.

(End of this chapter)