If competitors want to create negative news to affect the public image of a brand, they may choose the following methods: 1. **Use social media and online platforms**: - **Create topics and rumors**: Through hot topics, groups, forums and other channels on social media, fabricate rumors or sensitive topics without factual basis to arouse public attention and discussion, thereby discrediting the brand image. - **Guide negative public opinion**: Hire online water army or use machines to increase the volume, publish a large number of negative comments and false information against the brand, guide netizens who do not know the truth to follow suit, and form a negative public opinion field. - **Digging privacy and black material**: Use hacking technology or other means to illegally obtain the private information of the brand or its related personnel, and expose it on the Internet, causing damage to the brand image. 2. **Rely on traditional media**: - **Provide false information to the media**: Provide carefully fabricated negative news materials to some influential traditional media, use the credibility of the media to spread them, and mislead the public. - **Manipulate public opinion reports**: Collude with media insiders to influence the topic, angle and focus of news reports, deliberately highlight negative events of the brand and downplay positive information. 3. **Plan offline events**: - **Organize negative public relations activities**: Organize some protests and boycotts against the brand to attract media coverage and create social and public opinion pressure on the brand. - **Use the association of emergencies**: When some emergencies occur, try to unreasonably associate the brand with them and guide the public to transfer their negative emotions about the event to the brand. - **Arrange negative experience scenes**: Hire people to deliberately create unpleasant experience scenes in the brand's stores and service places, and then spread them through video and photos, etc., to bring negative impact on the brand's reputation.