President Jokowi’s PR stunt on motorcycle at Asian Games revs up online chatter

Indonesia President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has tickled netizens for his involvement in the recent Asian Games opening ceremony, which saw him riding into the stadium with a motorcycle. The grand entrance was coupled together with an entertaining video, which has gone viral online.In the video, Jokowi is seen exiting his office in an orderly and calm fashion as expected of a president and entering a vehicle enroute to the Asian Games. However, his smooth journey is intersected by a group of curious citizens, prompting him to take the motorcycle of a Paspampres (presidential security forces) staff.Jokowi is then seen racing through the streets of Jakarta, while performing various motorcycle tricks such as driving up a ramp to the cheers of Indonesian citizens, and narrowly avoiding collision with an auto rickshaw. He also stops traffic to help a class of children with their teacher to cross a road before finally making his way to the Asian Games stadium venue to the fanfare of the crowd present.Since its release, the video for the Asian Games opening ceremony has gone viral, garnering millions of views across varying reposts of the clip. Watch it here:Presiden Jokowi hadir di Stadion Gelora Bung Karno.#AsianGames2018 #EnergyofAsia #OpeningCeremonyAsianGames2018 pic.twitter.com/eiZ36LGC81— NET. (@netmediatama) August 18, 2018The epic opening ceremony was also mentioned by Jokowi himself on Instagram, who paid tribute to the games and his motorcycle appearance yesterday. His post garnered 1,089,546 likes at the time of writing.According to Twitter, the Opening Ceremony of #AsianGames2018 had generated at least 1 million tweets, with the #OpeningCeremonyAsianGames2018 hashtag topping the chart in the worldwide trending topic list.The insight was revealed during Twitter's recent launch of three emojis in line with the Asian Games in Indonesia. The emojis are that of the official Asian Games logo, a torch which symbolises the energy of Asia and the event’s three mascots - Bhin Bhin, Atung, and Kaka.The hashtags #AsianGames2018 and #AG2018 trigger the logo emoji, while the mascot’s emoji is triggered by #AsianGames and #18thAsianGames. Meanwhile, the hashtag #EnergyOfAsia will prompt the torch emoji.This is not the first time a major sporting event has involved an authority figure in its opening ceremony introductions. During the London Olympics in 2012, the event’s opening ceremony featured Queen Elizabeth alongside the famed James Bond played by Daniel Craig. This saw the queen (or an image of her) jumping off a helicopter and parachuting to the stadium.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AS-dCdYZboSo what do you think of the clip? Are you revved up for the Asian Games?Read also: Asian Games 2018: How Brand Indonesia is making a mark on the region Indonesia transport agency strikes Google Maps partnership ahead of Asian Games PaperOne sponsors Indonesia team for 2018 Asian Games Tissot comes on board 18th Asian Games Jakarta Palembang 2018 Singapore Airlines throws support behind Team Singapore in Asian Games 2018