Grumpy Cat’s visage was named the Meme of the Year at the 2013 Webby Awards, beating out “Gangnam Style” and “Harlem Shake.” Many memes come and go, but her owner, Tabatha Bundesen, turned the cat’s face into the center of a thriving business.
Her likeness appeared on nearly 900 items in an official shop, she made a television advertisement for “Honey Nut Cheerios,” and she became the official “spokescat” of Friskies, a cat food brand. The cat starred in a Lifetime Christmas movie, “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever,” she was on the cover of New York Magazine, and her book hit No. 7 on The New York Times’s advice, how-to and miscellaneous best-seller list.
Estimates ranged widely on how much Grumpy Cat was worth, though Ms. Bundesen disputed a 2014 report that the cat had earned her $100 million. In 2018, Ms. Bundesen won $710,000 in a copyright infringement suit against a coffee company that made Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino.
