Catapalism
The late-stage capitalist phenomenon in which cats are increasingly deployed as the ultimate marketing failsafe. When consumer interest wanes, creativity stalls, or a product simply fails to resonate, the solution is always the same: put a cat on it. From YouTube thumbnails to luxury fashion campaigns, the formula is depressingly reliable—slap a feline on anything, and suddenly it sells. It is the final, desperate stage of a system that has run out of new ideas and now relies on our collective weakness for furry faces to move product.
The new campaign is a textbook case of catapalism—when a brand runs out of ideas, it just puts a cat on it and hopes for the best.
I can't believe Diesel resorted to printing cat images on t-shirts to manipulate us into buying—catapalism at its finest.
I can't believe Diesel resorted to printing cat images on t-shirts to manipulate us into buying—catapalism at its finest.
Catapalism by Le Fool collective October 12, 2026