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Grumpy Cat: Queen of the Internet.
#CREATE: Pick a person or a brand that became aware of their meme-status and then tried to capitalize on it. Why exactly did they fail or succeed? Detail how they leveraged their popularity as a piece of online culture.
As most internet memes do, Tardar Sauce (aka. Grumpy Cat) rose to fame when a picture of her was posted on Reddit. The original post was simply an image of Tardar Sauce followed up by some videos. The macro meme that we know today was created and cultivated by other users. Like many internet memes, Grumpy cat owes its success to the collective input of many individuals. The nature of the internet is rooted in user generated content and an active rather than passive experience, especially on sites such as Reddit. The internet meme paired Tardar Sauce’s cute, perpetually grumpy, face with pessimistic and oddly relatable messages about everyday life. Memes are a mode of cultural transmission. They carry and spread ideas through the masses. I believe that there is no better representation of internet culture than an angry cat who is fed up with life and people.
Grumpy Cat followed in the footsteps of other famous internet felines such as piano cat and Nyan cat. Interestingly , these three cats all have the same agent, Ben Lashes… Yes, Meme Agent is an ACTUAL JOB. You can check out Ben Lashes Twitter account here. Mr. Lashes also represents the meme legends, Scumbag Steve and Ridiculously Photogenic Guy. He has one of the most glorious cat quotes of all time,
‘My business is more than just cats but cats happen to run the internet. It feels like a special moment where cats are overtaking the rest of the entertainment industry.’ You can read the full interview here.
With an agent and substantial viral success, Grumpy Cat was now ready to conquer the world. It is estimated that Grumpy Cat has made her owners over one million dollars in licensing and royalties. Grumpy Cat has managed to capitalize on her fame though ad campaigns, merchandise and even her own TV Christmas movie. Let’s take a look at these ventures.
Ad Campaigns.
Grumpy cat can be found at the centre of a number of different advertisements. Most notably, she appeared in a commercial for Honey Nut Cheerios with the famous Bee mascot, Buzz, and was named the official spokes cat for the cat food, Friskies.
In the Cheerios spot we find Buzz making fun of, and taunting, Grumpy Cat. As I watched the ad I wanted Grumpy Cat to swat Buzz out of the air. The Cheerios ad completely missed the point of what made Grumpy Cat successful. I believe that internet macro memes are meant to be relatable and humorous by commenting on a part of everyday life. If a company is going to use an internet meme to promote its content, then it should capitalize on these aspects. The Cheerios ad does utilize some elements of the meme such as having text appear saying, “I am smiling” after Buzz tells Grumpy Cat to smile, but it also fails to offer anything relatable. The ad is trying to present Honey Nut Cheerios as a reason for Grumpy Cat to smile but it does so by making fun of her. Grumpy cat memes are not about making fun of, or trying to fix, Tardar Sauce’s frown, they are about using her frown as a representation of the small annoyances that occur in our everyday lives.
I think a better use of Grumpy Cat in the ad would be to have her going through a regular morning routine: alarm clocks, showering, trying to look presentable. We can see that she’s unimpressed with everything and each task is paired with a “grumpy” statement about waking up. Finally, Grumpy Cat gets to eat her breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios. Her morning becomes a little more bearable until she looks down and sees that she’s finished her breakfast and now she has to go deal with people. This uses the meme’s tone and structure to tell a more relatable story that incorporates Honey Nut Cheerios in a positive light. While Cheerios did not use Grumpy cat wisely, her owners did manage to capitalize on endorsement deals worth “six figures.”
Grumpy Cat’s endorsement deal with Friskies was a more appropriate use of the character. Friskies already had a history of capitalizing on the fame of internet cats by holding an annual cat video contest. This strategy paired the brand with famous feline internet sensations that most appealed to their target demographic: Cat owners/ lovers.
One Friskies ad involved a cute, loveable corgi trying to meet Grumpy Cat at a pet store. The corgi was aptly named, Happiness. Each time, Grumpy cat would shut down Happiness in a humorous way that’s more reminiscent of the macro meme. The ad ends with, “happiness? No thanks.” Compared to the cheerios ad, it’s easy to see how Friskies managed to incorporate more of the memes strengths into the commercial and while it’s not a perfect use of the meme, it does convey the same pessimistic and sarcastic tone that viewers and fans have come to associate with Grumpy Cat.
Lifetime TV Christmas Movie.
After watching some of Grumpy Cat’s commercials it’s clear that she has a natural presence on screen. So what was next for this cat? a movie of course. The film, titled “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever,” was released in 2014 as a made for TV Lifetime Christmas special. Despite it’s poor ratings, it still managed to become a trending topic on Twitter when it first premiered. While it doesn’t seem to offer anything new or groundbreaking, it does take the traditional Christmas movie formula and add a bit of flavour through the use of Grumpy Cat’s signature sarcasm. Most of the jokes are meta and self aware. However, it feels like the creators are trying too hard to create “internet content”. I think that it’s a perfect example of why internet memes shouldn’t be used as a basis for longer format content.
The purpose of an internet meme is to provide the viewer with a short burst of laughter that will hopefully prompt them to click the like or share button before they scroll to the next thing on their newsfeed. A Grumpy Cat Meme is funny, but reading Grumpy Cat Memes for two hours? that becomes tedious. The most important lesson here is that just because something is successful and works for one medium, doesn’t mean that it’s success will translate to other media.
Merchandise.
While Grumpy Cat’s popularity has certainly declined, her owners have still managed to capitalize on the meme’s success through the sale of merchandise. You can find Grumpy cat merchandise at traditional brick and mortar stores such as Walmart and Target and online shopping sites such as amazon, ebay and the official Grumpy Cat website. This merchandise ranges from plush toys, to t-shirts, coffee mugs and even a New York Times best selling book called, “The Grumpy Guide to Life.” When it comes down to beloved characters like Grumpy Cat, merchandise is nothing new. However, the most interesting part about Grumpy Cat’s merchandise is that some of it allows users to create custom designs.
They cleverly brought the “user generated content” aspect of internet memes into their merchandising. There is nothing more relatable than a personalized message. Customers are able to engage with the meme and the content when they purchase the product, the same way they would online.
It’s clear that Grumpy Cat has come a long way since it’s early days on Reddit. Tardar sauce has become a national icon and a testament to the power of user generated internet content. While Grumpy Cat has faltered in other forms of media, Ben Lashes quote still rings true, “cats happen to run the internet.”
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