Starting from the middle of April 2018，stories about the “slow-selling apples” from Linyi of Shanxi province was widely shared on WeChat and other We-Media platforms，prompting active purchases from citizens who believed they were helping out farmers in distress. The incident went under the spotlight on 7 May，when the government of Linyi county publicly dismissed the stories online as “exaggerating and false”，and accused such marketing shenanigans of hurting the image of the local fruit industry and the interests of fruit growers. Public discussion peaked when the Beijing Youth Daily revealed on 9 May that the pictures used by many retailers to illustrate their sad stories featured the same person. It was when the term “Uncle Slow-selling” became trending on the Internet. The public commented on the harms of making up sad stories to sell products，called for stronger supervision on online marketing activities，and contributed ideas for the marketing of agricultural products. The incident began to calm down on 12 May.