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President’s son turns anti-Jokowi rally into marketing campaign
A rally of hundreds gathered on Monday morning to protest at a martabak food stall belonging to the President's eldest son in Solo, Central Java, but instead of triggering a political or personal response, it prompted a marketing campaign.
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Event-based marketing: This image taken from Markobar's official Twitter account shows a composite image of Monday's rally in Solo, Central Java, along with Gibran Rakabuming Raka, President Joko Widodo’s eldest son and owner of Markobar. In a creative twist, the 'martabak' business has turned the #2019GantiPresident (#2019ChangePresident) rally into a marketing campaign. (Markobar's official Twitter account @markobar1996 /File)
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undreds gathered on Monday morning to protest at a martabak food stall belonging to the President's eldest son in Solo, Central Java, where they held an anti-government rally in support of the #2019GantiPresident (#2019ChangePresident) hashtag.
The Markobar food stall, which sells martabak (a sweet or savory pancake), is the first business that Gibran Rakabuming Raka, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s eldest son, has owned.
In a video @Muslim_Bersatu uploaded to Twitter, the rally participants are seen standing in the middle of the street, right in front of Markobar. Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with #2019GantiPresident (#2019ChangePresident), the protesters are heard yelling that they will elect a new president in 2019.
“We will protect the nation’s sovereignty by changing the President in 2019. We want sharia to be enforced in Indonesia," one protester said, ending with "Allahuakbar" (God is great).
Netizen Mas Piyu using the Twitter handle @maspiyuuu posted a picture of the rally with the caption: “AMAZING. Solo residents declared #2019ChangePresident in front of Jokowi’s son Markobar store.”
Gibran, however, appeared to have remained calm as seen from Markobar’s response to the rally on its official Twitter account (@markobar1996).
“Thank you for queueing since the morning. The delightfulness of Markobar, the pioneer of sweet martabak with premium topping, has been proven #eatsharehappiness,” the tweet read.
Many netizens viewed the tweet as funny and clever, as Gibran had used the rally to promote Markobar and its product, instead of responding with anger.
Markobar's "marketing message" has been retweeted more than 2,700 times to date.
Markobar also posted a composite picture that showed the rally participants standing in front of the stall in their #2019ChangePresident T-shirts, along with an image of Gibran’s face with a speech bubble in informal Indonesian saying: “Oh no, you came too early guys... Markobar isn't open yet...”
Eko Kuntadhi (@eko_kunthadi) commented on his Twitter account that the protesters were afraid that they would come up against martabak in the 2019 presidential election.
“Why did they demonstrate in front of Markobar? Because they are afraid that if their presidential candidate ran against martabak, the people will choose martabak,” he tweeted.
Gibran seems to have stuck to his role in running a small business and has used Monday's event as a marketing strategy, flooding the Markobar account with tweets about the stall and its products. (ebf)
