Malaysians are immortalising Hamilton’s visit to Malaysia by turning him into a meme. — Picture courtesy of Facebook
KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 – Even though prominent Formula One driver, Sir Lewis Hamilton has left the country, Malaysians are still hyping over his visit earlier this week.
The seven-time world champion and some members of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team were seen in Kuala Lumpur on Monday after participating in the Australian Grand Prix.
Local social media feeds went into overdrive after a photo of Hamilton waving his hand while casually sitting on a regular kopitiam chair at a Petronas petrol station started circulating.
Consequently, the photo has spawned multiple memes for Malaysian social media users, and now local companies have joined the bandwagon.
Local cafe and cakes franchise, Secret Recipe Malaysia took to their Facebook pages to share an edited photo of Hamilton enjoying a slice of cake at one of their cafes.
“Eh, we ran into Lewis Hamilton while he was having his cake at Secret Recipe,” they captioned the post.
Japanese convenience chain store Family Mart Malaysia also didn’t miss the opportunity to join in the fun by sharing an edited photo of Hamilton enjoying a drink at one of their stores on their Facebook page.
“Eh, suddenly he’s here. He must be hungry after all that long day of shooting. What do you think Lewis Hamilton’s FamilyMart order would be?” they wrote in the caption.
Retail store franchises, AEON Big Sri Petaling and Mydin took the chance to promote their plastic chairs which are similar to the one used by Hamilton in the circulating photo.
“We don’t have the black ones, but we do have them in orange colour. Original price is RM50K, I will give you a promotional price of RM20.90 only,” Mydin wrote in one of their tweets.
Aside from that, there were a few individuals who tried to sell a similar looking chair on online shopping platform, Shopee while claiming it to be the exact chair Hamilton sat on.
One seller was seen trying to sell the chair for RM5,200 while another seller was found selling it for RM2,888.88.
Screenshot of a few sellers on Shopee who’re claiming to sell the kopitiam chair used by Hamilton on his recent visit. — Screenshot via Shopee
Local social media were quick to get creative with the editing as well.
Twitter user NFTeesProsJ did a quick edit on the Hamilton photo by editing him at different locations in Malaysia such as at a Ramadan bazaar, lining up for Nasi Campur as well as at the grandstand of Sepang International Circuit.
There were also submissions by other Twitter users who shared their own take.
During his pit stop in Malaysia, the 37-year-old racer shared snippets and photos of his visit to KLCC and Kuala Lumpur areas via his Instagram stories while urging his followers to come and visit Malaysia.