The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2021
A breakout actor's endorsements vanished in 4h21m, 26-plus brands in one night
Zhang Zhehan signed roughly 27 deals in six months on one drama's fame. Once his conduct turned controversial, brands cut him one by one until all were gone.
TASAKI · Lanvin · 2021-08-13
What happened
Zhang Zhehan broke out in April 2021 off the drama Word of Honor, and in the following months roughly 27 brands signed him — jewellers, fashion houses, phone makers, drinks — betting on an actor whose fame was less than six months old. TASAKI, the Japanese jeweller, had named him its first brand ambassador on 2 August.
His conduct then drew a wave of criticism online and in state media. Brands began terminating one by one on 12–13 August; the exits compressed into a single window, the last of them announcing within 4 hours and 21 minutes of each other — Lanvin at 21:48, TASAKI at 21:52. TASAKI's deal had lasted 12 days.
By the following morning every one of his roughly 27 endorsements was gone, faster than a comparable pileup on actor Kris Wu weeks earlier, which had taken 43 hours. Brands that had raced to sign the season's hottest new face spent that same night racing to be seen cutting him loose.
Why it happened
- 27 brands signed one actor inside six months of his first hit — a bet on velocity that left no brand exposed alone once sentiment turned
- once the first terminations landed, staying signed read as a brand statement in itself, so the exits cascaded rather than trickled
- the speed of the cutoff (4h21m, beating a prior case's 43 hours) became its own story, independent of what any single brand actually lost
The lesson
Signing a newly-famous face fast means unwinding just as fast — a roster built in six months came apart in four hours, and no brand wanted to be the last name still attached.
Aftermath
Zhang's planned projects were shelved and his fan platforms restricted. Coverage framed the incident as ending the era of Chinese luxury brands racing to sign the newest breakout star sight-unseen on a track record.
Sources
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