Chinese dramas and films

Chinese netizens are calling on actor Ren Jia Lun ("Love of Nirvana", "Fate Chooses You") to come pick up his barrel of wine worth 600,000 yuan.

A long time ago, Ren Jia Lun was passing through Jiangsu province - either for work or as a tourist - and bought a cask of wine at the Yanghe distillery. Well, "cask" means a  traditional Chinese clay pot for traditional Chinese wine.

Carrying that pot around right away wasn't convenient — it's big (100 kg, 200 jin) and fragile — so the wine stayed at the distillery temporarily. The actor planned to pick it up later.

As the saying goes, years passed, and dusk fell...

The distillery carefully looked after the wine pot, but Ren Jia Lun just never came back for it.

Mind you, the wine cost over 600,000 yuan - that's about 600,000 yuan $83,000 USD or 6.5 million rubles (enough for a modest apartment somewhere outside of Moscow).

The pot sits there. Time passes. Some say it's been six years, others say ten.

Fans started suspecting that the actor had simply forgotten about his purchase and decided to help remind him. A hashtag went viral: #网友喊话任嘉伦取回60多万的酒 ("Netizens urge Ren Jia Lun to retrieve his 600,000-yuan wine"). Cute jokes and memes started popping up everywhere.

But despite the topic gaining huge views and lots of engagement, Ren Jia Lun's studio and his personal social media accounts haven't responded at all. Then again, they say he usually doesn't reply unless it's necessary.

Read more: Drama 'Fate Chooses You' Premieres with Wang He Run and Ren Jia Lun

Still, this feels a lot like marketing. The story name-drops Yanghe — one of China's biggest liquor producers — along with a price and a location. There's a celebrity involved. Ren Jia Lun is a popular actor with a big, loyal fanbase. His name guarantees viral spread. Plus, a drama starring Ren Jia Lun, "Fate Chooses You", is currently airing. And yet the actor and his studio are staying silent, even though celebrities usually either deny or confirm things like this.

The story popped up right as people were talking about Ren Jia Lun's trip to another alcohol festival (Luzhou Laojiao — a Yanghe competitor). That gives it a "coincidental" feel, but in marketing, such coincidences are often planned.

The plot is relatively safe: it doesn't hurt the actor's image; instead, it makes him look a bit absent-minded but well-off — it gets a smile, not outrage. Although that part is debatable — the wine's price tag is pretty high, and the current trend in China doesn't exactly encourage flaunting luxury.

Later, the distillery said that the wine was actually an exhibit at a scenic tourist spot, not Ren Jia Lun's personal property. He had just signed the jar as a souvenir, and they gave him a regular bottle as a gift.

But either way, this funny little story is a great example of viral stealth marketing on social media — a growing trend in China right now.