Catvertising: When the Internet’s Most Absurd Obsession Became a Viral Masterpiece
PURRfect.
There are moments in advertising when a piece of content feels inevitable in hindsight. Catvertising was one of those moments. The parody video, produced by John St. out of Toronto, took a cultural truth that marketers were already circling and pushed it to its logical extreme. It did not merely reference the internet’s obsession with cats. It institutionalized it, framed it as a business unit, and delivered the idea with the same seriousness reserved for a global brand launch.
What made Catvertising remarkable was not that it was funny. Humor alone rarely sustains attention. What made it unignorable was the contrast between impeccable production and a deliberately ridiculous premise. The result was a video that felt absurd, credible, and insightful at the same time.
Catvertising
At the center of the concept was a simple premise: to survive in a fragmented advertising landscape, the agency had opened the world’s first cat video division. Strategy, production, filming, and seeding were all handled in-house, as if cats were not just a cultural phenomenon but a media channel worthy of a dedicated department.
The execution mirrored the tone of serious agency culture. Confident narration. Polished cinematography. Clean edits. Business language. This was not a sketch that looked like an internet joke. It looked like a real agency announcement, which made the punchline land harder and linger longer.
Why This Video Worked Beyond the Laugh
The brilliance of Catvertising lay in its restraint. Rather than escalating the absurdity through slapstick or chaos, the video treated the subject with total sincerity. That sincerity forced the audience to reconcile two opposing ideas: this is ridiculous, and this is precisely how advertising works.
By applying professional storytelling, lighting, sound design, and scripting to something as trivial as cat videos, the team exposed a truth. Distribution often matters more than message. Cultural relevance often outperforms originality. Attention is frequently earned not through meaning, but through familiarity.
The video also benefited from impeccable timing within the cultural conversation. Cat videos were already ubiquitous, shared without friction, and consumed without intent. Instead of mocking that reality from the outside, Catvertising stepped inside it and exaggerated it just enough to make marketers uncomfortable. That discomfort is what made it stick.
Most importantly, the video respected the audience. It did not explain the joke. It trusted viewers to understand both the parody and the critique. That trust elevated the piece from viral content to industry commentary.
The Strategic Lesson Hidden in the Absurdity
Underneath the humor was a sharp strategic observation: attention is not rational. People do not share content because it is persuasive, optimized, or brand-safe. They share what feels culturally fluent. Catvertising used cats as a symbol, not a gimmick, representing the broader truth that formats and behaviors often outweigh messaging in the battle for visibility.
The video also demonstrated that parody works best when it is built on deep industry fluency. Every line, every visual cue, and every trope reflected real agency behavior. That accuracy is what allowed the exaggeration to resonate rather than feel lazy.
Takeaways
- Production quality amplifies even the simplest ideas: The video succeeded because it treated a trivial subject with cinematic seriousness, proving that craft can transform absurdity into credibility.
- Cultural fluency beats originality: Catvertising did not invent a trend; it leveraged an existing behavior that audiences already loved and shared instinctively.
- Parody is strongest when rooted in truth: The humor landed because it exaggerated real agency structures and marketing logic rather than inventing caricatures.
- Distribution is part of the creative: By centering the concept on shareability itself, the video acknowledged that how content travels is just as important as what it says.
- Trust the audience to get it: The absence of explanation respected viewers’ intelligence and allowed the message to emerge organically through contrast.
Catvertising was not just a joke about cats. It was a mirror held up to the industry, polished enough to feel official and warped enough to make its point. That balance is what turned a parody video into a lasting example of how strategy, culture, and craft can collide to create something truly memorable.
