Grumpy Cat: Reasons For The Unusual Appearance Of A Sad Cat And The History Of The Popularity Of The "grumpy Cat", Photo

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-17 22:26

Grumpy Cat - Grumpy Cat

Grumpy Cat is the ultimate success story. Judge for yourself: one photo posted on the Internet led to thousands of memes and imitations, advertising contracts with the largest manufacturers of pet products, sales of souvenirs worth millions of dollars and worldwide fame. How it happened, how it all began and is it possible to repeat success - let's figure it out.

Content

• 1 Grumpy Cat - Grumpy Cat - appearance

  • 1.1 Photo Gallery: Angry Cat Family
  • 1.2 Photo gallery: the breeds to which the Angry cat was attributed on the Internet
  • 1.3 Video: Grumpy Cat as a child (you can also see photos of the Tardar brothers and sisters in it)

• 2 The popularity story of Angry Cat

  • 2.1 Photo gallery: a selection of memes, demotivators and fanart
  • 2.2 Video: Original Grumpy Cat - over 20 million views
  • 2.3 Photo gallery: examples of design of souvenirs and clothing
  • 2.4 Video: "It's Hard To Be a Cat at Christmas"
  • 2.5 Video: Grumpy Cat Friskies Ads

• 3 Secrets of popularity

  3.1 Photo gallery: "competitors" of the Grouch Kitty on the Web

Grumpy Cat - Grumpy Cat - Appearance

On the Russian-language Internet, this meme is known as "Grumpy Cat" (aka "Gloomy Cat", "Cat-grumpy" and "Gloomy Cat"). This translation is fundamentally incorrect - Tardar Sauce (this is the real name) is female. She was born on April 4, 2012 in the Bandesen family in Arizona and got her name from her youngest daughter, Krystal, whose spots on the skin of a kitten resembled a spray of sauce. An annoying typo crept into the nickname, but the mother of the family, Tabata, did not correct the mistake.

Tabata Bandesen - owner of Grumpy Cat

The reason for the popularity of Grumpy Cat was primarily her specific appearance. A dark "mask" with downcast corners of the mouth left an imprint of universal despondency, sadness and severity on the muzzle. Such an unusual expression is associated, according to the hostess, with congenital genetic abnormalities - dwarfism and malocclusion. The limping gait of Tardar is due to the length of the hind legs, which sometimes makes it seem a little wobbly.

Wikipedia and some other resources classify Grumpy Cat as a snow-shou breed, distinguished by the color of the Siamese / Thai cat (the so-called seal-point - cream body, dark ears, tail and muzzle) and white "socks" (hence the name of the breed - "Snow shoes"). However, despite the external similarity, the owners did not confirm this fact: “We are not sure what breed of Grumpy Cat. She doesn't have anything from her parents. It looks like a ragdoll or snow shoo, but there is no such cat around our house. Her mother is tricolor and shorthaired, her father is gray-white and striped. (Although, I suspect, there may be options with him) ".

Photo Gallery: Angry Cat Family

Callie is the mother of the Angry Cat

Father of an Angry Cat

Grumpy Cat with his brother Pokey

The Munchkin is also not a Munchkin (which has been repeatedly suggested by netizens). To obtain these cats with short legs, catteries are purposefully selecting (since this is also a deviation and a recessive trait), but the Grumpy Cat's parents were completely ordinary animals.

Photo gallery: the breeds to which the Grumpy cat was attributed on the Internet

Munchkin (seal point color)

Ragdoll

Snow shu

It is also worth noting that Brother Grumpy Cat is distinguished by the same signs of genetic abnormalities, however, they are less pronounced.

Video: Grumpy Cat in childhood (you can also see photos of the Tardar brothers and sisters in it)

Be that as it may, except for the rest of the gait, Tardar Sauce is an ordinary, full of strength, active cat. She runs beautifully, jumps (although she is afraid to go down from top to bottom) and hides - this is her favorite game. Despite the harsh appearance, the Grouch Kitty has a gentle and calm character. The owners care about her health: visits to the veterinarian are regular, photo sessions are scheduled only once a week, meetings with media and sponsors outside the schedule are short, and the number of people allowed to contact Grumpy Cat is limited. Despite requests from fans, there are no personal meetings.

The popularity story of the Angry Cat

On September 22, 2012, a photo of half-year-old Tardar was posted on Reddit by Tabata's brother, Brian

Original photo posted on Reddit

Many Reddit users didn't believe that the photo was not edited in Photoshop, so a few days later Brian posted links to two videos on YouTube. The videos quickly went viral. The popularity that hit Grumpy Cat was phenomenal. Numerous pictures, demotivators, drawings with the image of Grumpy Cat and inscriptions rushed.

Photo gallery: a selection of memes, demotivators and fanart

"How are you feeling? No way"

"Thinking of you. It's horrible"

"What doesn't kill you will definitely try again."

Drawing - fanart Grumpy Cat

"Tomorrow is Monday"

“The end of the world has not come. It's a pity"

"What's wrong?" - "Everything"

iFanart - "NO"

More than half a million people have subscribed to the Angry Cat page on Instagram (now there are already 2.4 million users), about 250 thousand have accumulated on Twitter (at the moment - 1.53 million). Views of the third video on YouTube exceeded 20 million. Facebook also distinguished itself by significant numbers (at the moment the page audience exceeds 8 million).

Video: Original Grumpy Cat - over 20 million views

In a matter of weeks, Grumpy Cat was no longer just a meme. The cat's owner was not at a loss, and soon Grumpy Cat Limited was founded and an experienced manager, 34-year-old Los Angeles resident Ben Lashes, was hired. The choice was explained by the fact that Leshes specialized specifically in Internet memes - promotion and profit, and also worked for a percentage of income (20%). So, in his asset there was already a pianist cat, who brought about $ 300 thousand from the sale of souvenir products.

The owner of the Angry Cat was right with her choice. From 2012 to 2014, according to analysts' estimates, she earned more than $ 100 million. The turnover of Tabata Bandesen's company even exceeded the earnings of many top sports and Hollywood stars: according to analysts, for example, the earnings of such actors as Cameron Diaz, Matthew McConaughey and Nicole Kidman turned out to be much lower.

Here is a partial list of what went into this dizzying amount:

The main source of income was souvenir products: T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, figurines, phone cases, postcards, etc. And now on the site you can buy a wide range of goods - more than a thousand items. Prices start at $ 15. The store's slogan is also notable: "Find and buy yourself something terrible." Here are just a few of the T-shirt inscriptions, for the most part collected from the most popular plots on the Web about the Grumpy Cat:

• "Happy Birthday. You have grown old."
• “Today is April Fools Day. Believe in nothing and trust no one. Just like any other day."
• "I have an idea? Keep it with you."
• "No" - Nope - one of the most popular inscriptions on demotivators gives scope for graphic design.
• "The first day at school? I already hate her”(on a children's sweatshirt).
• “Parties, barbecues and fireworks? Sounds awful”(against the background of the American flag, a hint of Independence Day).
• “Leprechauns? I eat them. " (design for St. Patrick's Day).
• "Homework? Not. I ate it."
• “Mondays? I don't like them."

Photo gallery: examples of design of souvenirs and clothes

Collar soft toy

Women's sweatshirt

Sweatshirt “Halloween? Argh."

Easter T-shirt

Mike “Taxes? Not"

Sweatshirt “Boo? What about BUUUUU"

Notepad: "Book - NO"

Running is Terrible T-shirt

T-shirt "Time to be angry"

Mug: (Owner Name) Feels

Two books about Grumpy Cat have been published. Several times she was invited to the TV shows: "Good Morning America!", "MTV Movie Awards 2014", "Morning Show Playboy", "American Idol", and in 2014 they shot a whole film - "The Angry Cat's Worst Christmas ". The movie, however, did not quite succeed: it failed at the box office. But given that the life cycle of the meme ends with oblivion, it played a role: Grumpy Cat was remembered again.

"Angry Cat's Worst Christmas" movie poster

Video: "It's Hard To Be a Cat at Christmas"

With such popularity, advertising contracts were only a matter of time. Soon, Angry Cat starred in the Friskies commercial. This predetermined its priorities: to this day, the main advertiser of Grumpy Cat Limited in social networks is Purina. Also at the moment, Angry Cat is promoting a local pet supplies manufacturer from his native Arizona - PetSmart.

Video: Friskies commercial with Grumpy Cat

A great success was also the conclusion of a contract for branded product lines: Grumppuccino iced coffee. The drink maker Grenade was going to compete with Starbucks in this way.

Grumppuccino

Paradoxically, Grenade became a source of income on the other hand: in 2015, Grumpy Cat Limited filed a lawsuit against them. The subject of the lawsuit was the placement of the Angry Cat on roasted coffee and T-shirts: an agreement for such use of images was not in the contract. After 2 years of litigation, the firm of the owner of Tardar, by a court decision, became richer by another $ 710 thousand.

The ill-fated ground coffee that cost Grenade $ 700 thousand

The image of the Angry Cat has also been used for charitable purposes. For example, she participated in an action to accommodate homeless animals from a volunteer shelter.

The secrets of popularity

The question that worries many users of social networks: “How to achieve such success? Can I repeat it? The author of this article, by the nature of his activity, has some relation to promotion, including Internet marketing, so at one time he asked the same questions. Here is a small list of conclusions made after analyzing the available information:

1. The success of the first photo was accidental, as is usually the case with online memes. It was important how the owners of the Angry Cat took advantage of the hype around the animal. The first component of success is the image: bright, unusual and memorable. It was not just a cute cat (there are thousands on the Internet) - her appearance was explained, a character attached to her. It may have turned out to be a rather gloomy worldview, but in the features of the Angry Cat, anyone could easily recognize an already experienced emotion. Many memes touched upon everyone understandable moments: dissatisfaction with the surrounding world, the beginning of the work week or school year, lack of joy from the holidays, irritation with people around.
2. The second step was very competent and timely use of the popularity of the meme and the involvement of a professional in the field of Internet marketing. The correctly chosen manager was not only able to immediately assess how to properly monetize millions of views and thousands of likes on social networks, but also quickly formalized a trademark and offered the public clothes and souvenirs at the right time, at the peak of popularity, before the production of goods with Grumpy Cat there would be thousands of small companies.
3. Maintaining constant public interest was also important. The life cycle of Internet memes is short: explosive growth in popularity usually gives way to oblivion or, at best, calm interest. The angry cat lasted for several years, actively "glowing" in advertising, TV shows, programs and regularly blogging on social networks. And even now, when her fame has subsided a little (who, for example, knows about the game released with her for Android and iOS in 2017?), Posts on Facebook cause an active response, and the company Purina trusts her with its advertising.
4. The regularity and accuracy of social media and constant posting also played a role. Posting high-quality photos from the right angles and in interesting places, reports on events, new ideas for pictures - all this makes Grumpy Cat subscribers go to her page in search of fresh content, and therefore share it with friends.

Summing up these three points: the question of whether it is possible to predictably create your own meme of this level should be answered with a firm “no”. The success of an Internet virus is almost always accidental: you never know what the public will react to in this way. That is why, despite numerous attempts to repeat the success of Grumpy Cat (for example, the angry Japanese cat Koyuki), they have not come close to the original in popularity. In addition, all the followers were deprived of the effect of novelty: in publications they were invariably considered as competitors to the Angry Cat, which immediately put them on the second step.

Photo gallery: "competitors" Kitty-grumpy on the web

Angry cat (used to create memes)

"The Wicked Cat Garfie"

Koyuki is an angry cat from Japan

However, what the Grumpy Cat story can teach is the technology of using the situation correctly, as well as showing how to act if such popularity unexpectedly fell on you. Figuratively speaking, the success of the first photo began to compare to winning the lottery, and its further history - to a reasonable spending of the won funds, which allowed them to increase.

Despite the fact that in the past few years Grumpy Cat's popularity has subsided a lot, she still remains one of the most famous cats on the Internet, she has a constant army of fans, contracts and - most importantly - a loving mistress and a happy, well-fed cat life. And who knows, she will probably show herself: for example, she will star in a good film. In the meantime, you can just follow the regular updates on Facebook and Instagram, because in addition to the screen star, Grumpy Cat remains a charismatic, cute kitty.