"Lei Jun really went to tighten screws," trending early in the morning.

On November 13, Lei Jun tweeted: "Netizens urged me to go to the factory to tighten screws. In fact, I often go, and I arrived early this morning. I arrived too early and took a nap in the workshop."

The tweet was accompanied by a photo of him sleeping on a mattress on the floor, shoes on, fully dressed. Xu Jie, deputy general manager of Xiaomi China's marketing department and general manager of the Redmi brand, tweeted to his boss, "Mr. Lei, please cover yourself with a quilt to avoid catching a cold," once again trending on the hot search.

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Those with a keen sense of news will know that this was a branded marketing event. The reason Lei Jun tweeted this was because Xiaomi's SU7 celebrated the "100,000th vehicle rollout ceremony." Simply mentioning 100,000 vehicles wouldn't resonate with the public, especially compared to BYD, which sells 500,000 vehicles a month. Combining the topic of Lei Jun tightening screws and sleeping on the floor, Xiaomi successfully conveyed the message about the SU7's 100,000th vehicle rollout.

It has to be said that Xiaomi has mastered the art of using Weibo and trending topics. Among many business leaders, Lei Jun's internet sense is unparalleled, even spilling over to Xiaomi's senior management team, with several Xiaomi executives having a significant following on social media. In 2024, the automotive industry saw a trend of "becoming Lei Jun" for IP marketing, although most were mere imitations.

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However, some netizens were unhappy because Lei Jun's "Sleeping Beauty" photo had too strong a filter effect, clearly staged – after all, ordinary people sleep with crusty eyes, snore loudly, or sleep like a log... How could Lei Jun possibly look so elegant?

The well-known self-media "Han Han Observation" believed that Lei Jun's staged photo "didn't move me this time."

"Only the photo of him smiling while sleeping on the floor reveals that the entire event was orchestrated by the team, staged, and not real, and can even be seen as consuming Lei Jun's persona to gain traffic and hype. If Lei Jun had really fallen asleep in the factory and was secretly photographed by colleagues, sharing it would have had a better effect than this orchestrated packaging. Because that would be the most authentic Lei Jun, the one netizens love the most."

Does it really matter if it's real or fake? Yes, it does matter. Recently, a Rolls-Royce owner was suspected of using a "script" to create a kind and beautiful persona, live-streaming to attract donations and sales, and was heavily criticized by netizens because "true, good, and beautiful" must be true first.

However, even if Lei Jun's situation was "staged," it can't be considered "fake" since it's just an entrepreneur's daily activities, not involving any public issues or soliciting public sympathy or love, and not related to the discussion of "true, good, and beautiful."

Moreover, Xiaomi's team knows that the outside world understands this is a planned marketing event, so there's no need to hide it, as evident from the obvious signs of orchestration in this image.

As everyone knows, Lei Jun is a well-known "model worker" among Chinese entrepreneurs, a "king of hustle," and it's not surprising that he arrives early at the factory to take a quick nap. Diligence is one of the reasons netizens like Lei Jun, and he also has an approachable image on the internet, with 30 million followers on Douyin, making him an absolute top streamer who doesn't lack traffic and has no need to deliberately "hype" himself.

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Fake becomes real when real becomes fake. If Xiaomi's team insisted on "passing off fake as genuine," they could have let Lei Jun sleep in the factory the night before, prepared with blankets, pillows, and toiletries, and then secretly photographed some "genuine sleeping photos" to release. However, even after going through so much trouble, some netizens would still consider it a marketing stunt, orchestrated by the team, meticulously staged, and not real.

It's not just Lei Jun who has been questioned about staging. Huawei's tri-fold phone, the Mate XT, was first revealed when Yu Chengdong was secretly photographed using it. Many netizens questioned whether this was a team operation to preheat the new product.

Apple's new iPhones have also been leaked multiple times in previous years, such as "an engineer lost an engineering machine while hitting on girls at a bar." After Apple fired several employees for the leak, netizens believed that Apple genuinely didn't want its new phones to be leaked.

On a certain evening in 2016, netizens found 72-year-old Ren Zhengfei alone, dragging a suitcase, and queuing for a taxi at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport; in 2012, Ren Zhengfei was photographed by netizens taking an airport shuttle bus. After both photos were leaked, online opinions were divided, with some moved by Ren Zhengfei's frugal lifestyle and others questioning whether the photos were deliberately leaked by the team, arguing that "an entrepreneur of Ren Zhengfei's caliber wouldn't take a taxi or a shuttle bus on his own."

It's actually difficult for the outside world to determine the truth in some matters.

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Some netizens also questioned whether Lei Jun's visit to the factory to tighten screws and sleep on the floor was "copying" Musk.

Musk sleeps anywhere – on factory sofas, desks, makeshift mattresses – he doesn't care where.

In 2018, when the Model 3 faced production challenges during Tesla's darkest hour, Musk stayed at the Tesla Gigafactory day and night for three consecutive months. His bedding was an old sofa, which was so narrow that he had to sleep on the floor in the office. Some fans who felt sorry for Musk crowdfunded over $4,400 to buy him a new sofa, expressing their respect and support for his hard work.

This old sofa became a symbol of Musk's hard work and dedication. In some companies, such a sofa would be displayed in the corporate museum to remind employees of past hardships.

After Musk, it seemed that no automaker CEO who hadn't tightened screws in the workshop was worthy of talking about life. Many automaker leaders went to tighten screws, some to oversee production and others to lead by example.

XPeng Motors' He Xiaopeng went to the factory to tighten screws, and some self-media interpreted this as embodying his "leadership philosophy of hands-on practice." Yu Chengdong personally tightened screws at the Seres factory supported by Huawei, and some self-media interpreted this as Yu Chengdong overseeing production due to the overwhelming demand for AITO's new cars.

However, it's not always the case that only Chinese entrepreneurs learn from overseas leaders. Recently, Musk was named the "Director of the US National Development and Reform Commission (head of the newly established Department of Efficiency)" by Trump, which is something Hu Xueyan played with over a hundred years ago.

Regardless of whether automaker CEOs going to the workshop to tighten screws is a show, what consumers truly need are better products and services. All kinds of marketing are ultimately just bonuses for good products, the zeros after the one.

Many people believe that Xiaomi's success in the fiercely competitive automotive market relies on marketing, often overlooking Xiaomi's strong product capabilities. Xiaomi's "department store" reputation is well-deserved, and the product capabilities behind Xiaomi SU7 and Xiaomi cars are actually lacking in most automakers. Many automaker CEOs struggle to emulate Lei Jun's online celebrity status because their product capabilities haven't caught up.