“Cannot unsee.”
This was what Filipinos quipped after an online user posted a picture of a wafer stick’s mascot and mentioned the name of Asia’s top pole vaulter EJ Obiena.
Writer and poet March Abuyuan-Llanes on Wednesday made social media laugh with a close-up picture of Stik-O‘s mascot, a winking boy carrying a wafer stick on his shoulder, captioned with: “EJ Obiena.”
The comment was posted on the X (formerly Twitter) platform, where it has earned a whopping number of 25,000 likes and 4,100 reposts so far.
EJ Obiena pic.twitter.com/ax8vtMwCMV
— March Abuyuan-Llanes 🇵🇸 (@magmartsa) August 14, 2024
The post made its way to Facebook, where the page “Klasik Titos and Titas of Manila” reshared it with the caption:
“HOW TO UNSEE (laughing-with tears emoji) Iba talaga ang humor ng Pinoy! Stick-O, you have one job to do! (rolling-on-the-floor laughing emoji)”
Its reshare has amassed 16,000 pure laughing reactions and 1,900 shares.
The page also juxtaposed the wafer stick mascot with an actual picture of EJ holding his pole.
“SUMISILIP PA ‘YAN, OH,” it said, referring to the mascot’s closed eye and a squinting EJ.
The comparison between their perceived similarities elicited several reactions from Pinoys.
“Oo nga, kamukha, ahahhahaa,” a Facebook user commented.
“[Siya pala] ‘yon,” another user quipped with laughing emojis.
“Honestly? They could be related,” a different user said.
“I can’t unseee. Stik-O, baka [naman],” a different Pinoy said, hinting at a possible endorsement for EJ.
In a follow-up post, March said the idea was inspired by an online conversation with someone.
March shared a chat randomly saying “EJ Obiena” to a photo of a can of Stik-O water sticks.
“LOLL. That does look like EJ Obiena. Tweet that,” the Facebook friend said, referring to the mascot.
i literally fall asleep and my tweet ends up on the philippine star 😭😭 https://t.co/DE2ry0RjHm pic.twitter.com/HS4PqHp1ZN
— March Abuyuan-Llanes 🇵🇸 (@magmartsa) August 14, 2024
EJ recently ended his Paris Olympics 2024 with a fourth-place finish, a significant improvement from his 11th placement in Tokyo 2020.
He is the World No. 2 pole vaulter, next to Sweden’s Armand Duplantis.
RELATED: ‘Growth and progress’: EJ Obiena cheered for 4th place finish at Paris Olympics