I don't care how you do it, just do it

With a One Minute Maniac running the country, my thoughts turned to a blog post I never finished, about one of the greatest fuck-yous ever delivered to a "shut up and do it" manager.

It was 2015, and according to The Washington Post,

It all apparently began with a simple demand from Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je. He reportedly asked the chairman of EasyCard to double the company’s business.

Easycard sells passes you use to get onto trains and buses.  Most people who need one, probably already have one.  And now the mayor wants you to double sales.  According to The Taipei Times, "Ko said he told Tai to increase EasyCard Corp’s business by 100 percent and left the details up to him."

What's an enterprising transit executive to do?  Well, Tai Chi-chuan, chairman of Easycard, mulled it over and came up with a simple, workable plan.

Japanese cultural icons are extremely popular in Taiwan. More than 3 million Taiwanese visited Japan last year, more than tourists from any other nation.

Now, he thought to himself, what Japanese cultural icon would bring a LOT of fresh interest to Easycard?  For reasons known only to himself, he thought of Yui Hatano, whom I have never heard of but I am given to understand is glamorous and beautiful and also a famous porn star.  A few phone calls, a a little negotiation, and in very little time they had printed up a very large number of Easycards with Yui Hatano's picture on them:

The photos, [company spokesman] Lin Hsiao-chi said, conveyed a “fresh, healthy and beautiful” image, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Who could argue with that?  I mean, look at her.  Anyway, part of the genius of this move is that, as every Chinese schoolboy knows but none will admit, Hatano resembles famous Chinese actress Lin Chi Ling:

I'm just speculating, but I imagine Hatano's representation was a little quicker to return Easycard's calls than Lin Chi Ling's, and I can't say Hatano is noticeably harder on the eyes.  So good business sense all around so far.

But did the gambit pay off?  Can you sell lots of bus passes with Japanese pornstars on them in Taiwan?  Well...

At midnight Monday, the phones started lighting up. Four hours later, the entire run of 15,000 two-card sets had been sold, each for about $15.40.

Tai Chi-chuan has not released his voicemails from this period, but I would buy the whole pack on iTunes and pay extra for the translations.  And then, as a final fuck you to his boss and everyone else who ever doubted or questioned him, he announced proceeds would be donated to charity, and,

In a statement, EasyCard apologized for the controversy and pledged an internal review of the decision.

He had to resign later, and the sex workers used the whole affair to call out everyone on the island for their hypocrisy about prostitution.

This is most praiseworthy.  I call this highest achievement.

(link)