Remember how disgruntled Starbucks baristas would get when people ordered things off the mythical “secret menu?” Now, TikTok users are flocking to their local art and stationery supply stores in the hopes of getting their hands on another too-good-to-be-true item — a leopard print highlighter from the brand Stabilo that simply does not exist.
So if it doesn’t exist, then how are people hearing about it? Well, we have engagement-hungry content creators to thank for this. Hordes of TikTokers are filming and uploading videos of themselves demonstrating how to use this falsified marker highlighter on sheets of paper by pretending to draw a pre-existing fluorescent streak that they’ve already embellished with black leopard spots. Clever camera angles and thematic nail art are fooling an already media-illiterate user base ranging from grade-school age children to doomscrolling adults into believing that Stabilo has put out a highlighter with a leopard print inking mechanism into its felt tips.
As initially reported by French media outlet Le Parisien, one French stationery shop was inundated with so many daily customers coming in requesting the highlighter that it took to the very platform that spawned the rumor to confirm that the product isn’t real.
While Stabilo does sell a highlighter donning the big cat pattern on its plastic shell as one from a set of four markers designed in collaboration with luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana, most TikTok users are hand-drawing their own spots onto standard Stabilo products in order to sell the bit.
Hyperallergic has reached out to Stabilo for comment.
If you take a glance at the comments section of any of these fake highlighter videos that have garnered between a paltry 500 likes and nearly five million, hundreds of users are either desperate to get their hands on the product, poking fun at those who can’t tell that it’s a doctored clip, or lamenting that it is, indeed, not real. Some content creators fess up to the product being fake when pressed for more information, while others reply with coy emojis.
Despite some TikTok users even walking their audiences through the motions of creating the fake highlighter print, many still believe that it’s a product that can be purchased. I suppose you can lead a horse to water …
