Egypt: The Abou Ismail Poster Frenzy

Preparations are in full swing for the presidential elections in Egypt, set for May 23 and 24, 2012, with candidates' election posters already up on the streets. But when it comes to Hazem Salah Abou-Ismail, he sure beats all the rest in the poster frenzy. His posters are almost seen almost everywhere - from walls to cars to refrigerators to babies and even on the posters of other candidates.

Infinite number of Abou Ismail Posters

Egyptian netizens would not let the opportunity slip without poking fun at the poster bonanza.
Mohamed Hamza jokes [ar]:

@mohamad__hamza: اتوقع ان من اولويات الرئيس القادم الفقر و البطاله و ازاله بوسترات ابو اسماعيل

@mohamad__hamza: I believe the main priorities of Egypt's next president is to fight poverty, create new jobs and remove Abou-Ismail posters off the walls.

Randa Tawil adds [ar]:

@randatawil: دلوقتي لما تحب توصف لحد عنوان قوله إمشي طوالي مع بوسترات أبو إسماعيل بعدين هتلاقي تقاطع سيب أول بوستر و تاني بوستر و لف مع تالت بوستر يمين

@randatawil: Now when you want to describe an address to someone, you better say, keep going in the street with Abou-Ismail posters, then you will find a crossroad, leave the first poster and the second poster and with the third one turn to the left.

Monda Salem continues [ar]:

@Mondasalem: عاجل وحصرى: وكالة ناسا لعلوم الفضاء تعلن عن اكتشاف 5000 بوستر للشيخ ابوسماعيل فوق سطح كوكب المرّيخ.

@Mondasalem: Breaking news: NASA announced that it has discovered 5,000 posters for Hazem Salah Abou-Ismail on Mars

And Attiya Attiya notes [ar]:

@attiya_attiya:للمرة الثالثة خلال يومين .. أحد المواطنين يقسم لي أنه رأى بأم عينيه شارع خالي تماما من بوسترات ابو اسماعيل

@attiya_attiya: For the third time in two days, someone swears that he has seen streets with no posters of Abou-Ismail in them!!

It didn't stop here, as a new meme was started among Egyptian netizens, along with a tumblr account under the name “Abo-Ismail Doing Stuff.” Hundreds of other photographs were also posted both on Twitter and Facebook, where Abo Ismail is depicted to have his very own version of the popular social networking site: