14 Manufacturers In M’sia Utilizing This Viral Meme For Advertising

By now, you've probably heard of the viral drama surrounding something people call the RM460 burger.

If you don't, let me try my best to really, really sum up the story.

Basically there are several players and a party here.

There's Mr. Chia, a supposedly wealthy bachelor, who ends up going to the birthday party of a lady named Carmay whom he supposedly likes.

It is hosted by a friend of Carmay's named Liddy and held at the Banyan Tree Kuala Lumpur. At the end of the party, the bill costs a whopping 3,679 RM.

The group agrees to split it evenly, with each person paying RM460. He just ordered an RM88 burger (Angus beef if you need to know) and a glass of water to himself.

But he still pays his RM460 stake and thinks it's over.

However, there would be drama soon. You can read the full story here.

In short, netizens went crazy for the fact that he even agreed to pay RM460 for an RM88 burger and meal with plain water.

Now several well-known brands in Malaysia are turning the drama into a meme and using the RM460 burger for a bit of virality.

Since they caught the attention of internet users and ours as well, we'd say it worked.

1. Banyan tree Kuala Lumpur

Yes, the birthday party venue itself caught the wind of drama and decided to take this opportunity to further promote their RM88 Angus Beef Burger.

Thanks to Mr Chia, Carmay and Liddy, they were already partly the talk of the town. So why not

2. Bata Malaysia

This brand is perhaps the most iconic shoe brand for me as I would wear white shoes and use shoe whiteners for most of my school days (remember that chalky white liquid?).

While shoes and a burger are anything but the same thing, Bata Malaysia jumped on the trend anyway and got over 300 likes in about 4 hours.

Quite a jump from their usual <100 or 100+ likes on other posts. I've never seen Bata Malaysia as a particularly trendy brand that adapts to memes, but this time around I was surprised by their marketing team.

If only it had taken a little more effort to actually modify the image to match the meme itself.

3. Big bathroom

Big Bath, a one-stop specialty kitchen and bathroom store, made this meme a very good match for their product.

I would give the Photoshop job a solid A too. It could have looked a lot better, but you can tell that a certain amount of effort has been put into it.

Similar to Bata Malaysia, a toilet and burger aren't two things I put together (unless you had a particularly bad burger) but it works.

Bet Mr Chia would have preferred to buy the RM288 toilet (a bargain as their NP is RM950!) Instead of paying RM460 for an RM88 burger every day. I would.

4th Care condoms

They didn't use their best copywriter, but still got their message across in a few words.

A pack of 3 condoms from Care Condoms costs RM11.90. For RM460 that's about 38 packs of condoms and 114 individual condoms.

Make your choice.

5. DurianManSS2

This popular Durian stand in SS2 (pretty self explanatory I suppose) gave its customers two options: Buy 10 boxes of Musang King Durian for RM460 or 1 box of Musang King Durian for RM46.

The power of choice rests with the consumer. Unless you want a burger that you wouldn't find here.

6th Golden Screen Cinemas

Perhaps one of the undisputed meme champion brands in Malaysia this year, GSC went viral again, but this time not for anything, “Hello. Can't ”be related.

Now you have the opportunity to book an entire hall at a price that is not RM460, but lower, in front of our faces.

We're not sure who would bite as the movie selection seems rather … not exciting, but then again, there are people out here with RM460 and above who are left with even this economy.

When you book the hall and wonder if you can then sit wherever you want, the GSC administrator says this:

7th KyoChon Malaysia

KyoChon, popular for its KFC (Korean Fried Chicken, not Kentuckian), didn't go out of their way, but they used another meme to capitalize on that meme.

Is that the next level? You decide.

8th. Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur

Le Méridien's quarrel with hotel colleague Banyan Tree, especially as they used the meme by marketing their own Angus beef burger for RM 50 including a glass of Carlsberg draft.

Can someone review both Angus burgers and write a comparative article for me? Thank you very much.

9. Llaollao Malaysia

I'm a little irritated by the lack of a "to" anywhere in the caption, but I'm going to let it pass because Llaollao Malaysia was telling nothing but the truth.

With RM460 you can feed at least 30 people froyo. That's a whole family and more.

10. myBurgerLab

Whenever something goes viral, you can expect myBurgerLab to be one of the fastest to tweak for your own benefit.

For this reason, they have decided to market their burgers through a "birthday offer".

Not only do they attract consumers to spend RM88 on 4 sets of burgers (buy 3, get 1 free), but it's also a smart way to get more users to their app as the deal is only available there.

11. MyeongDong Topokki

RM 22.90 for a burger, drink and fries are not bad business. It would have been better if it had been a beef burger and not a chicken, however.

But I forgive them, if only for clarity in the visual indication "Price includes SST – No message for additional payment".

12. Upper glove

For something that suits this climate, Top Glove is asking Malaysians to wear our disposable molded polyethylene (CPE) gloves when we eat expensive burgers.

In the name of sustainability, they also urge us to become vegetarian instead and we will add: don't forget to recycle your gloves when you're done!

13. Video recorder

VCR, a facility known for their specialty coffees, recorded the meme as an instastory on their own.

They are offering a 24 hour flash deal on their own burger, and I guess we sure have until tomorrow afternoon to catch it.

Not the cheapest burger at RM28 (excluding drinks) but still a bargain compared to the RM460 burger.

14. Viewnet Computer System Sdn Bhd

In 1999, Viewnet grew from a single store to a hyperstore offering Malaysians an IT hub from a single source. Today Viewnet has grown into a brand that knows how to capitalize on memes.

The marketing team took the opportunity to highlight an ASUS EX-B460 motherboard they had sold and suggested a special price of RM 46.

With a pretty decent accompanying picture, it apparently worked as commenters shared screenshots of them adding the product to their shopping cart.

Due to some other comments, the product now appears to be no longer available and it could be assumed that it is sold out.

– // –

Ultimately, this meme has undoubtedly made many internet users giggle, and brands only thrive on their own virality after customizing it.

However, I can't help but feel sorry for Mr. Chia.

Whose story is true? Who should we side with?

I'm not sure, but I do know a tried and tested method to avoid getting into the drama about food bills: just go Dutch.

• You can read more of the viral stories we've covered here.

Selected image source: Llaollao Malaysia / GSC