Post-Crisis High Exposure: How It Shapes Public Opinion and Commercial Value

By The Olivia
Independent Content Strategist for the China Market
This article is part of ”Public Communication“ series. [Read the introduction here.]

Introduction

Ziyu, a Chinese actor and singer, rose to fame in June 2025 after starring in the drama Revenged Love. A month later, he became the center of a major public controversy. Most artists in this situation would slow down—reduce appearances, wait for the sentiment to cool, and come back when the timing feels safer. He did the opposite.

From July to August, he kept a steady pace of visibility: performances, events, new songs, short-form videos. New content appeared every few days, sometimes several times in a single day. This rhythm didn’t feel random. It looked like something that had been deliberately arranged.

The question is: what do these actions signal? And what can brands take away from them?

1. What this rhythm does: shifting attention from “the incident” back to “the person”

After a crisis, the biggest risk is being remembered only for the controversy. Ziyu’s team countered this by keeping him consistently present on people’s timelines. The intent was simple: let the audience keep seeing him in different moments, instead of being stuck on one event.

A few things stand out in this approach:

• Timing
  There was no quiet period. New content appeared right after the crisis, moving attention from “what happened” to “what he’s doing now.”
• Variety
  Stage clips, photoshoots, new music, vlogs—broad enough for different groups to find their own entry point.
• Platform spread
  Content showed up on Rednote, Weibo, and short-video apps. Wherever the audience was, he appeared.

The goal was to rebuild a habit: he is still active, and still present.

2. Why accelerate after a crisis instead of slowing down?

• Lowering resistance
  When attention shifts quickly, stable visibility helps emotions settle. Disappearing often creates more tension than staying visible.
• Preventing others from filling the gap
  If he didn’t show up, the empty space would be taken over by second-hand rumors, speculation, or recycled negativity.
• Sending clear commercial signals
  Brands and partners need people who are visibly active. A steady rhythm communicates reliability without having to spell it out.

What brands can learn

This kind of rhythm management isn’t exclusive to artists. Brands face the same issue after a crisis: attention habits break, and you need to rebuild them. A few principles apply:

• Don’t let the gap stretch too long
  Even if major campaigns pause, the audience should still feel the brand is moving.
• Avoid one single type of content
  Diverse formats spread out attention and prevent negativity from concentrating on one point.
• Show up across channels
  Let people encounter you in different environments, so no single narrative dominates.

Conclusion

Ziyu’s approach in 2025 shows that high visibility after a crisis isn’t a burst of bravery—it’s a paced, directional way of managing attention.

For brands, the question after a crisis is how to show up.
Whether you can bring attention back to everyday contexts—and help people rebuild a steady, low-friction sense of your presence—often determines how quickly your value recovers.

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