Advertising The Punch-Line.docVIP

Advertising The Punch-Line 　　A Chinese singer who struggled to gain popularity for years has finally made it―as a joke writer， or duanzi shou in Chinese， on social networks. By creating short and funny pieces on Weibo， China’s Twitter-like microblogging service， Xue Zhiqian now has more than 20 million followers and counting. 　　Originating from Chinese cross-talk， duanzi is defined as a comedic episode， and is often used to refer to short and humorous writing on the Internet. Duanzi emerged as a popular form of posting in the early days of Weibo. Shou is used to refer to people who are good at something. 　　Weibo users have gradually noticed Xue’s talent for jokes during the past few years， but it was only after he started appearing on TV reality shows in 2015 that he was able to exploit his skills to the fullest. 　　“Unlike many other pop figures who use acting to be funny， he behaves much more naturally. It’s like he was born to be a hilari- ous figure，” claimed a netizen after viewing Xue’s performance on TV. 　　Like many other active joke writers in China， Xue has become a commercial darling， as more and more companies seek to use joke writers to advertise their products. Xue now charges 450，000 yuan （$67，500） for each advertisement and is one of the most expensive joke writers on the market. 　　“The money I earn by doing this is almost 10 times the amount I could get from being a singer，” said Xue during the Mars Intelligence Agency TV show in May. 　　 Laughing ads style 　　When Zhang Jianwei quit his job in April 2013， he was already able to gain more from advertising on Weibo than his regular salary. He now asks for more than 100，000 yuan （$15，000） to create an advertisement. He refuses to accept suggestions from clients and doesn’t guarantee that his efforts will produce successful results. 　　This is quite different from how traditional advertising agencies operate， since they normally cater to a client’s every request. 　　Here is one typical example