Politicians' slip-ups often turn into memes but rarely they make money. A popular meme, inspired by Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat's famous "East Coast Plan" has made over S$1,000 already.
On June 30, the day of filing nomination for Singapore General Election, People's Action Party's East Coast GRC candidate Heng announced that he had a plan for the constituency but fumbled constantly in describing it and kept repeating 'East Coast'. That inspired creative netizens to come up with memes with parody music.
"For our East Coast residents, we also have a plan for the East Coast. We have a East Coast, Singapore, we have a together and East Coast plan. We care at the East Coast," Heng said during the short speech.
$2 sticker for Donation Drive
While Heng and his team managed to win from the East Coast GRC, a Reddit (u/melonmilkfordays) made a doodled meme with a cue card and another (u/ayam) made a vinyl sticker out of it. He then put it up for sale online for S$2 each and decided to donate the proceedings to Krsna's Free Meals, a small restaurant in Little India, Singapore. The restaurant mostly caters to the migrant workers. Since then, several stickers have been sold fetching over S$1,000.
"Me and u/melonmilkfordays are going to donate all proceeds (less expenses like paypal transaction fee and postage) from the sale of this sticker to a soup kitchen in Little India that melonmilk volunteers at. They make vegetarian food and caters mainly to migrant workers in the area. come 18th July, we will tally up the total and cut a cheque for Krsna's Free Meals," the Redditor said.
He added that he did it to help the restaurant which suffered because of the Coronavirus pandemic. "We're all aware how the dormitory situation played out in the recent months and I hope that this is one small thing we can do to help them as well as anyone who's in real need of an honest good meal," he wrote.
Heng's East Coast plan has also inspired merchandise from different small businesses.
Jamus Lim's Speech Now A Merchandise
It's not just Heng's speech which is profitable. Even the Workers' Party's Sengkang GRC candidate is too can make people pay. Lim's speech following his team's stunning win from Sengkang GRC included the phrase "warm the cockles of my heart".
Now, that phrase has been printed on sweatshirts and t-shirts. Those t-shirts are getting sold for S$35 while the hoodies are on sale for S$68. There are also 'Famous Jamus' t-shirts for S$35.
