IKEA HK trendjacks viral video of high school student singing on his knees

IKEA Hong Kong has trendjacked a recent viral video of a high school student singing on his knees, which has drawn heated discussions across social platforms.

This comes as a video of a high school boy covering a love song at a singing contest went viral online. Within the video, the student sang on his knees with dramatic gestures approaching the end of the song, despite singing out of tunes. The crowd gave him a huge round of applause after the performance, according to the video.

IKEA Hong Kong then uploaded a post on Facebook introducing its new black Swedish rug, with a caption that read “跪下來、唱出去”, “For any students who doesn't want to get their knees hurt, please bring me along when you join a singing competition! Break a leg!!! I am the IKEA x Swedish House Mafia OBEGRÄNSAD Rug,” the post read.

The original video was first uploaded by Kau Yan College on YouTube about a month ago, but it did not become viral until 26 October, according to social monitoring firm CARMA. It saw a total of 54.2% positive mentions related to the incident over the last 24 hours.

“The YouTube video has generated over 248k views as of 10 am on 27 October. While most netizens had been sarcastic about the student’s performance, many appeared to be supportive of his courage to perform on stage. The majority of netizens praised him for his ability to capture emotions and express them through his performance,” said Charles Cheung, GM of CARMA.

Meanwhile, MC Cheung, the original singer of the song, shared the video on his Instagram story on 26 October, saying that a performer on stage should showcase all he has without fear, “the performer in the video did not seem to act nervous, I really wish to encourage him regardless of the singing skills. When I was singing on stage at a singing contest in high school I just looked at the floor with my hands shaking,” he added.  

CARMA’s Cheung also said that netizens generally complimented the singer on his timely response and supportive comments, which had a positive impact on his image.

This isn't the first time the brand has trendjacked a social conversation.Following the public outcry over the toddler accidentally smashing one of KK Plus' life sized Teletubby back in May this year, IKEA HK decided to post a picture of the BILLY bookshelf and encouraged parents in Hong Kong to bring their children to its furniture store. In a post on its Facebook page, the Swedish retailer took on the personality of the BILLY bookshelf and said in the picture: " 家長們放心...我固定好哂，小朋友推唔跌我㗎 " - where it essentially tries to get across the sturdiness of its book shelf.

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