In the age of short attention spans and chaotic scrolling, meme marketing has become the internet’s favourite inside joke turned brand strategy. Marketers are using memes as low-cost, high-engagement content that feels native to Gen Z’s timeline.
Born from internet culture and brainrot humour that thrives on absurdity and relatability, memes blur the line between brand and banter. They’re built for virality, with studies showing that meme posts can generate up to 60% more engagement than traditional formats.
Across APAC, brands from Shopee to Luckin Coffee to even Ikea are embracing meme-speak to appear more human. The result? A new wave of marketing where wit, timing, and cultural fluency matter more than budgets.
Campaign has compiled some of the funniest and most memeable posts below:
1. Shopee PH
Shopee jumped on the Physical: Asia buzz with a parody of Filipino MMA fighter Mark Mugen’s iconic performance in the hanging competition. James Rusameekae’s viral 'WOW' reaction to Mugen's body reveal in the rugby match between Philippines and Thailand makes a cameo too. The brand's mash up instantly took off across TikTok and Reels. Fans loved the crossover—turning the e-shopping platform's memes into mini pop culture events that felt straight out of stan Twitter.
2. Ikea Singapore
The “67” Gen Alpha brainrot trend, which originates from a catchphrase lifted from Skrilla’s track Doot Doot (6 7) and supercharged by TikTok edits, has become shorthand for pure chaos and in-joke absurdity among kids. Ikea's take involves making references while pushing its 11.11 sale.
3. Lazada Malaysia
Lazada Malaysia riffs on brainrot mobile game ads with a broom-choosing challenge that looks like pure clickbait, but is impossible to scroll past. Fans leaned into the chaos, fervently spamming screenshots of the correct brooms as the viral “oo ee a e a” cat meme track blares in the background.
4. Pizza Hut Malaysia
The fast food chain jumped on the viral Coldplay moment with a cheeky take at both dieting guilt and temptation. The meme pokes fun at the shocking kiss cam footage of Astronomer CEO Andy Byron hugging chief people officer Kristin Cabot. To make matters... worse, Chris Martin quipped: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” The incident spawned thousands of #ColdplayGate memes, intense online speculation about an alleged workplace affair and, eventually, Byron’s resignation as CEO.
5. KFC Thailand
KFC Thailand tapped into the Italian brainrot trend of surreal, AI-fuelled creatures for the 2025 return of its Chizza. The campaign (creepily?) reimagines the half-chicken, half-pizza mashup of “Chizzalulu Chizzalala,” a deeply confused culinary creature. The result is a fast-food Frankenstein that leans into absurdity, daring fans to resolve its identity crisis the only way that makes sense: by eating it.
6. Call Me Chunky
Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor’s eternally unimpressed (and longtime memed) face gets weaponised in a campaign by Indian ice cream brand Call Me Chunky. The spot shows Kapoor's poker face staying locked in across every other over-the-top scenario. The gag lands when only a spoonful of ice cream cracks him, turning the actor's blank expression into a fresh, self-aware joke.
7. Grab
Grab’s pop-up ad was designed to poke fun at how many food shots people hoard on their phones, but it immediately sent users into a spiral on Reddit. Many wondered if Grab was actually scanning their photo libraries, with posts accusing the app of spying.
Some conceded the app likely wasn't snooping around, but the attention-grabbing, now-infamous hook resurfaced long-running anxieties around data collection, digital consent and how much access platforms really have to users’ devices.
8. Binggrae Singapore
Binggrae Singapore hopped on the viral 'talking cats' meme, which pairs a wide-eyed cat with a sad cat to dramatise snack cravings and mood swings between couples. One cat delivers overdramatic meows while the other reacts with teary-eyed sadness, making it perfect fodder for over-the-top relationship memes.
9. Netflix PH
Netflix Philippines jumped on the K‑pop Demon Hunters craze with a “single, taken or…” relationship status meme built around the show’s hit song 'Golden'. The meme turns stan feelings into punchlines—just one of the countless memeable moments across Netflix’s social accounts, where hyper-specific fandom memes have become a full-time content strategy.
Another Reel features the Indonesian Netflix show Clown of the Dead, leaning into a hilarious jumpscare that has viewers screaming in equal parts terror and laughter. The caption—“why are you still awake? you have school/work tomorrow”—is a cheeky take on Filipino humour, scolding late-night doomscrollers by ambushing them through their earphones.
10. Luckin Coffee
Luckin Coffee rode a Xiaohongshu-fuelled meme when photos of an Oroqen elder in a deer-antler paojiao hat went viral for looking uncannily like the brand’s blue deer logo. Users jokingly dubbed the community the “Luckin Tribe” and tagged the brand, demanding a crossover. Luckin responded within days with a Hulunbuir winter shoot starring Oroqen men in traditional dress holding branded cups in the snow.
11. KFC, Uniqlo, McDonald's, Luckin Coffee, Mixue
A co-branded billboard in China lined up some of the world's biggest brands, pulling the first characters of their names in Chinese to spell “肯优麦瑞蜜” (Ken You Mai Rui Mi). The phrase, which sounds like “Can you marry me?” out loud, went viral on Xiaohongshu, Weibo and Douyin. Users dubbed it the ultimate brand marriage and debated whether it was a legit ad or an over-the-top proposal stunt.
