Rebecca Lim trolls Singapore with her 'retiring'; people are not amused

Well, that got everyone's attention.

Tan Xing Qi| February 13, 12:28 AM

Earlier in the day on Feb. 12, MediaCorp actress Rebecca Lim posted updates to her Instagram and Facebook account with a statement which included this line - "Yes, I am retiring".

She ended the statement off cryptically that she would answer questions 'real soon'.

I've'>
decided to do something that will change my life. I have been thinking about it for a while now as I know it has to...

Posted by Rebecca Lim 林慧玲 on Thursday, 11 February 2016

Most mainstream media outlets in Singapore reported on her 'retirement' without getting any further answers from Lim. Channel NewsAsia and TODAY, however, had taken their articles down shortly after Lim's social media postings.

Not a real retirement

At around 10:45pm of Feb. 12, Lim then posted a video announcing that she was not leaving her job and that she has actually "signed retirement plan with NTUC Income."

I'>
would like to thank everyone for their well wishes. My career is no where near over. But the truth is, we never know when our careers will end - for one reason or another. I'd like to encourage my fellow young professionals to plan for the future - the eventualities that we might never had been prepared for.

Posted by Rebecca Lim 林慧玲 on Friday, 12 February 2016

Netizens did not take this marketing stunt well. These are the top comments on her Facebook video post:

rebecca lim

The Straits Times reported that Lim, together with representatives from NTUC Income and Mediacorp, had a conference call with ST at 8.20pm to clarify that her initial post was in collaboration with NTUC Income.

In the call, she said, "I feel sorry for any misunderstanding that is being caused. Unfortunately, there are many people who have misinterpreted or misunderstood... I don't think I'm making use of the media. I'm just trying to maximise my reach as a celebrity."

Disappearing Mediacorp articles on Lim's retirement

Mediacorp had also said that no news outlet was informed of the stunt prior to the conference call at 8.20pm. It is not known then why both Channel NewsAsia and TODAY's articles on Lim's retirement were taken down earlier in the day.

We have provided screenshots of both articles which went offline:

Screen Shot 2016-02-12 at 11.16.17 pm

screencapture-www-channelnewsasia-com-news-singapore-actress-rebecca-lim-2508982-html-1455290222698

And what they looked like when they were still up:

screencapture-webcache-googleusercontent-com-search-1455290354682 screencapture-webcache-googleusercontent-com-search-1455290416483

So why kill such a newsworthy story?

So herein lies a few questions: Was there a chance that somebody in Mediacorp news outlets knew about the publicity stunt way before the 8.20pm conference call? Would CNA or TODAY have run a story to clarify that it was not a real retirement in that case?

Guess we will never know.

Interestingly, Lianhe Wanbao, at around 6pm, posted an update on Instagram saying that they had information that it was a marketing stunt:

rebecca lim wanbao

Heck, even someone claiming to work in Mediacorp knew of this stunt before 8.20pm:

carolkoh 1

So it was unfortunate that CNA and TODAY did not know the truth of the 'retirement' before its competitor Wanbao and someone claiming to be from Mediacorp and somehow their articles on Lim's 'retirement' just went down inexplicably.

But one thing's for sure, please ensure you are adequately insured. You never know what tomorrow brings. Like a botched marketing stunt.

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Top photo from video.

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