the pet rock? - GoFuckYourself.com

nap · 02-07-2004, 09:08 PM

Whoever owned a pet rock before I have a question for you.

Q: How was a company able to sale you a rock? How was a comnapy able to market a rock and make it a success?

KeWLKaT · 02-07-2004, 09:09 PM

wtf ? a pet rock ?? oh wait, this is gfy, i guess that explains it

Mr Pheer · 02-07-2004, 09:11 PM

didnt that fade away in the 70's?

GiantGnome · 02-07-2004, 09:12 PM

i never had a pet rock. i had a sister to skip across the lake

JDog · 02-07-2004, 09:12 PM

Damn, who the fuck would buy a pet rock! Man, if you can sell that, you can sell ANY thing!

jDoG

nap · 02-07-2004, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JDog
Damn, who the fuck would buy a pet rock! Man, if you can sell that, you can sell ANY thing!

jDoG

yep

icedemon · 02-07-2004, 09:29 PM

I never had a pet rock or a chia pet. But it pretty much comes down to marketing it enough where it becomes a fad. Kinda like those x-ray glasses in the comic book.

I wonder if all those people that were buying a cabage patch doll, thinking it as a investment, are actually still making money off of those things. Are those cabage patch dolls worth anything now days? I don't have any, just wondering.

KRL · 02-07-2004, 09:33 PM

I got one as a gift. Everybody was buying them. It was just considered cool to own a pet rock. A lot of people gave them as gifts.

Gary Dahl, as California advertising man, was having drinks with his buddies one night in April 1975 when the conversation turned to pets. As a lark, Mr. Dahl informed his friends that he considered dogs, cats, birds, and fish all a pain in the neck. They made a mess; they misbehaved; they cost too much money. He, on the other hand, had a pet rock, and it was an ideal pet - easy and cheap, and it had a great personality. His buddies started to riff with the off-the-wall idea nd pretty soon they were al tossing around the notion of a pet rock and all the things it was good for.

Dahl spent the next two weeks writing the Pet Rock Training Manual - a step-by-step guide to having a happy relationship with your geological pet, including instructions for how to make it roll over and play dead and how to house train it. "Place it on some old newspapers. The rock will never know what the paper is for and will require no further instruction.' To Accompany the book, Dahl decided to actually create a Pet Rock. He went to a builder's supply store in San Jose and found the most expensive rock in the place - a Rosarita Beach Stone, which was a uniform size, rounded gray pebble that sold for a penny. He packed the stone in excelsior in a gift box shaped like a pet carrying case, accompanied by the instruction book.

The Pet Rock was introduced at the August gift show in San Francisco (the gift market is much easier to break into than the cutthroat toy market), then in New York. Neiman-Marcus ordered five hundred. Gary Dahl sent out homemade news releases of himself accompanied by a picture that showed him surrounded by boxes of his Pet Rocks. Newsweek did a half-page story about the nutty notion, and by the end of October Gary Dahl was shipping ten thousand Pet Rocks every Day. He appeared on "The Tonight Show," twice. By Christmas when, two and a half tons of rocks had been sold, three-fourths of all the daily newspapers in America had run Pet Rock stories, often including Gary Dahl's tongue-in-cheek revelations about how each rock was individually tested for obedience at Rosarita Beach in Baja, Mexico, before being selected and boxed. A million rocks sold for $3.95 apiece in just a few months, and Gary Dahl - who decided from the beginning to make at least one dollar from every rock - had become an instant millionaire.

Copycat rocks flooded the market, including one cleverly marketed as "the Original Pet Rock," and dozens of quick-buck entrepreneurs joined the action selling such ancillary fun as Pet Rock Obedience Lessons and Pet Rock Burial-at-Sea Services. Immediately after Christmas 1975, Gary Dahl himself relabeled leftover Pet Rocks as Valentine's Day gifts for loved ones in need of a low-maintenance pet, but the Pet Rock quickly became last year's fad.

SureFire · 02-07-2004, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nap
Whoever owned a pet rock before I have a question for you.

Q: How was a company able to sale you a rock? How was a comnapy able to market a rock and make it a success?

Pure marketing geniuses? Loved the story how Ferrari had to change their policy of how they treated prospective buyers wearing jeans.

GonePhishing · 02-07-2004, 09:43 PM

Yeah, I remember the pet rock. Remember, back in the seventies things sucked. Rocks that the cool kids had were rocks every other kid needed to buy. They came out with pet rock II though it failed.

nap · 02-07-2004, 09:48 PM

I guess I can't laugh at another generation seeing as how my generation was brought up on http://www.ninjaturtles.com/

SureFire · 02-07-2004, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by KRL
......
Gary Dahl, as California advertising man, was having drinks with his buddies one night in April 1975 when the conversation turned to pets. As a lark, Mr. Dahl informed his friends that he considered dogs, cats, birds, and fish all a pain in the neck. They made a mess; they misbehaved; they cost too much money...

Rumor is that he stole the idea from kids at a church fundraising event who had glued and painted rocks to resemble pets that didn't need to be cared for.

fuelcell · 02-07-2004, 10:03 PM

Damn! That's a long time ago. The only thing I remember about the Pet Rock was my Grandpa buying one and showing it to me. Not sure why I remember that . . .

pornkitten · 02-07-2004, 10:03 PM

its all advertising baby! I want one, maybe I just buy everything

GiantGnome · 02-07-2004, 10:05 PM

I know my sister had one but im sure i didnt. I do however remember the mood ring I had.

KRL · 02-07-2004, 10:13 PM

Oh, and in case anyone thought of the million dollar variation. You're too late, someone already did "The Pet Cock" after that.

biglou · 02-07-2004, 10:14 PM

Pet rock inventor Gary Dahl took all his money and opened a bar in my home town (Los Gatos, CA) and named it after history's most famous prohibitionist: Carrie Nation's.

BL

Basic_man · 02-07-2004, 10:15 PM

Hahahaha !! Nice question!

TweetyBird · 02-07-2004, 10:31 PM

69pornlinks · 02-07-2004, 10:39 PM

as the Great Don King would say..'Only in America', haha

KRL · 02-07-2004, 10:44 PM

The keychain version LOL

SureFire · 02-07-2004, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by biglou
Pet rock inventor Gary Dahl took all his money and opened a bar in my home town (Los Gatos, CA) and named it after history's most famous prohibitionist: Carrie Nation's.

BL

Are you sure about this? My home town too.

nap · 02-07-2004, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by KRL
Oh, and in case anyone thought of the million dollar variation. You're too late, someone already did "The Pet Cock" after that.

i love simple ideas. i have a memory full of them

SureFire · 02-07-2004, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by KRL
Oh, and in case anyone thought of the million dollar variation. You're too late, someone already did "The Pet Cock" after that.

Was it your company?

Like you:

: 1orglaugh

biglou · 02-07-2004, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Are you sure about this? My home town too.

Of course I am sure that Los Gatos is my home town, what kind of question is that?

As far the pet rock and Carrie Nations... I never saw him in there, but it was common knowledge when I lived there that he was the one who started the bar.

Big Lou
LGHS Class of 81

SureFire · 02-07-2004, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by biglou

Of course I am sure that Los Gatos is my home town, what kind of question is that?

As far the pet rock and Carrie Nations... I never saw him in there, but it was common knowledge when I lived there that he was the one who started the bar.

Big Lou
LGHS Class of 81

Guess again...and talk with the locals in your home town.

JunkyardDog · 02-08-2004, 12:03 AM

I never had one, but the guy made a ton of money selling it. If you put the right spin and market something the right way you can sell absolutely anything.

pornkitten · 02-08-2004, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JunkyardDog
I never had one, but the guy made a ton of money selling it. If you put the right spin and market something the right way you can sell absolutely anything.

well now you have one of your very own buy a pet rock here for $6.95

http://www.baronbob.com/petrock.htm

pornkitten · 02-08-2004, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KRL

is that one yours?

beemk · 02-08-2004, 02:26 AM

i bought a jump to conclusions mat

polish_aristocrat · 02-08-2004, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KRL

The keychain version LOL

hahahahhahahhahah, is that for real ?

PlayGirl · 02-08-2004, 02:37 AM

i forgot all about those...

KRL · 02-08-2004, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by polish_aristocrat

hahahahhahahhahah, is that for real ?

Yeh, he sold $4 Million of them in 2 months.

polish_aristocrat · 02-08-2004, 02:38 AM

Ok, just checked google and apparently it was for real

But don't tell me poeple were paying for rocks they could find on the street.

polish_aristocrat · 02-08-2004, 02:38 AM

Ok, already saw KRL's answer.

kowntafit · 02-08-2004, 09:25 AM

Great story!

myjah · 02-08-2004, 09:27 AM

i didnt know people sold pet rocks...i thought kids just grabbed them from the driveway

Slick · 02-08-2004, 09:32 AM

biglou · 02-08-2004, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Guess again...and talk with the locals in your home town.

Here are some links to Gary Dahl and his Los Gatos relationship. I can't find any that mention Carrie Nation's specifically, but I saw Gary on To Tell the Truth in the early 80's. When they asked him what he does now, he said "I own a bar in Los Gatos called Carrie Nations"

Regarding the invention of the Pet Rock at an old L.G. restaurant, the Grog and Sirloin (once at the corner of Saratoga and N Santa Cruz) Invention Story

A page mentioning famous Los Gatans (not including some obvious entries, such as former Houston Oilers coach Hugh Campbell, Oscar winning producer Dan Jinks, or the Saturday Morning Geek on Beat the Geeks.... Harumph! Famous People from Los Gatos. I'm kind of glad that they don't mention Thomas Kinkade, though.

icedemon · 02-08-2004, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by myjah
i didnt know people sold pet rocks...i thought kids just grabbed them from the driveway

So your the kid that stole my pet rock tied up in the front yard.

SureFire · 02-08-2004, 10:13 AM

biglou,

Thanks for links.

02-07-2004, 09:08 PM	#1
nap Confirmed User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: midwest Posts: 2,765	the pet rock? Whoever owned a pet rock before I have a question for you. Q: How was a company able to sale you a rock? How was a comnapy able to market a rock and make it a success?

02-07-2004, 09:09 PM	#2
KeWLKaT Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: F-Town Posts: 130	wtf ? a pet rock ?? oh wait, this is gfy, i guess that explains it __________________

02-07-2004, 09:12 PM	#5
JDog Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Canby, OR Posts: 7,453	Damn, who the fuck would buy a pet rock! Man, if you can sell that, you can sell ANY thing! jDoG __________________ NSCash now powering ReelProfits.com ALSO FEATURING: NSCash.com :: SoloDollars.com :: ReelProfits.com :: BiminiBucks.com :: VOD PROGRAMS COMING SOON: Greedy Bucks :: Vengeance Cash NOW OFFERING OVER 60 SITES CONTACT :: JAMES SMITH :: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER :: ICQ (711385133)

02-07-2004, 09:29 PM	#7
icedemon Confirmed User Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Lutz, FL Posts: 1,022	I never had a pet rock or a chia pet. But it pretty much comes down to marketing it enough where it becomes a fad. Kinda like those x-ray glasses in the comic book. I wonder if all those people that were buying a cabage patch doll, thinking it as a investment, are actually still making money off of those things. Are those cabage patch dolls worth anything now days? I don't have any, just wondering. __________________ Clips4Sale.com

02-07-2004, 09:33 PM	#8
KRL Entrepreneur Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA Posts: 31,429	I got one as a gift. Everybody was buying them. It was just considered cool to own a pet rock. A lot of people gave them as gifts. Gary Dahl, as California advertising man, was having drinks with his buddies one night in April 1975 when the conversation turned to pets. As a lark, Mr. Dahl informed his friends that he considered dogs, cats, birds, and fish all a pain in the neck. They made a mess; they misbehaved; they cost too much money. He, on the other hand, had a pet rock, and it was an ideal pet - easy and cheap, and it had a great personality. His buddies started to riff with the off-the-wall idea nd pretty soon they were al tossing around the notion of a pet rock and all the things it was good for. Dahl spent the next two weeks writing the Pet Rock Training Manual - a step-by-step guide to having a happy relationship with your geological pet, including instructions for how to make it roll over and play dead and how to house train it. "Place it on some old newspapers. The rock will never know what the paper is for and will require no further instruction.' To Accompany the book, Dahl decided to actually create a Pet Rock. He went to a builder's supply store in San Jose and found the most expensive rock in the place - a Rosarita Beach Stone, which was a uniform size, rounded gray pebble that sold for a penny. He packed the stone in excelsior in a gift box shaped like a pet carrying case, accompanied by the instruction book. The Pet Rock was introduced at the August gift show in San Francisco (the gift market is much easier to break into than the cutthroat toy market), then in New York. Neiman-Marcus ordered five hundred. Gary Dahl sent out homemade news releases of himself accompanied by a picture that showed him surrounded by boxes of his Pet Rocks. Newsweek did a half-page story about the nutty notion, and by the end of October Gary Dahl was shipping ten thousand Pet Rocks every Day. He appeared on "The Tonight Show," twice. By Christmas when, two and a half tons of rocks had been sold, three-fourths of all the daily newspapers in America had run Pet Rock stories, often including Gary Dahl's tongue-in-cheek revelations about how each rock was individually tested for obedience at Rosarita Beach in Baja, Mexico, before being selected and boxed. A million rocks sold for $3.95 apiece in just a few months, and Gary Dahl - who decided from the beginning to make at least one dollar from every rock - had become an instant millionaire. Copycat rocks flooded the market, including one cleverly marketed as "the Original Pet Rock," and dozens of quick-buck entrepreneurs joined the action selling such ancillary fun as Pet Rock Obedience Lessons and Pet Rock Burial-at-Sea Services. Immediately after Christmas 1975, Gary Dahl himself relabeled leftover Pet Rocks as Valentine's Day gifts for loved ones in need of a low-maintenance pet, but the Pet Rock quickly became last year's fad. __________________ If you would like to develop your domains, you can lease inexpensive foreign labor from the leaders in the field at iWebmasters.com TO LOWER YOUR COSTS AND INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTION! * * * * * * * * * * * * Domains Adult News KRL's Newsletter Biz Tips Just Listed Domains

02-07-2004, 09:11 PM	#3
Mr Pheer So Fucking Banned Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 21,582	didnt that fade away in the 70's?

02-07-2004, 09:12 PM	#4
GiantGnome Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Nebraska Posts: 4,344	i never had a pet rock. i had a sister to skip across the lake

02-07-2004, 09:43 PM	#10
GonePhishing Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Blah Posts: 2,474	Yeah, I remember the pet rock. Remember, back in the seventies things sucked. Rocks that the cool kids had were rocks every other kid needed to buy. They came out with pet rock II though it failed. __________________ If Biff Fucks My Mom... I Might Never Be Born...

02-07-2004, 09:48 PM	#11
nap Confirmed User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: midwest Posts: 2,765	I guess I can't laugh at another generation seeing as how my generation was brought up on http://www.ninjaturtles.com/

02-07-2004, 10:03 PM	#13
fuelcell Confirmed User Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 1,525	Damn! That's a long time ago. The only thing I remember about the Pet Rock was my Grandpa buying one and showing it to me. Not sure why I remember that . . . __________________ Beat it. Nothing to see here.

02-07-2004, 10:03 PM	#14
pornkitten Confirmed User Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 1,412	its all advertising baby! I want one, maybe I just buy everything

02-07-2004, 10:05 PM	#15
GiantGnome Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Nebraska Posts: 4,344	I know my sister had one but im sure i didnt. I do however remember the mood ring I had.

02-07-2004, 10:13 PM	#16
KRL Entrepreneur Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA Posts: 31,429	Oh, and in case anyone thought of the million dollar variation. You're too late, someone already did "The Pet Cock" after that. __________________ If you would like to develop your domains, you can lease inexpensive foreign labor from the leaders in the field at iWebmasters.com TO LOWER YOUR COSTS AND INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTION! * * * * * * * * * * * * Domains Adult News KRL's Newsletter Biz Tips Just Listed Domains

02-07-2004, 10:14 PM	#17
biglou Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Granada Hills, CA Posts: 595	Pet rock inventor Gary Dahl took all his money and opened a bar in my home town (Los Gatos, CA) and named it after history's most famous prohibitionist: Carrie Nation's. BL __________________ Smutworks Soon... It returneth. skype: snyderola

02-07-2004, 10:15 PM	#18
Basic_man Programming King Pin Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Montreal Posts: 27,360	Hahahaha !! Nice question! __________________ UUGallery Builder - automated photo/video gallery plugin for Wordpress! Stop looking! Checkout Naked Hosting, online since 1999 !

02-07-2004, 10:31 PM	#19
TweetyBird Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Canadian this !!! Posts: 8,532	hehe __________________ sig for sale. ICQ :338213644

02-07-2004, 10:39 PM	#20
69pornlinks Confirmed User Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Heranus Posts: 5,560	as the Great Don King would say..'Only in America', haha __________________ It IS what it IS

02-07-2004, 10:44 PM	#21
KRL Entrepreneur Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA Posts: 31,429	The keychain version LOL __________________ If you would like to develop your domains, you can lease inexpensive foreign labor from the leaders in the field at iWebmasters.com TO LOWER YOUR COSTS AND INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTION! * * * * * * * * * * * * Domains Adult News KRL's Newsletter Biz Tips Just Listed Domains

02-08-2004, 12:03 AM	#27
JunkyardDog Confirmed User Join Date: May 2001 Location: Swamp Posts: 788	I never had one, but the guy made a ton of money selling it. If you put the right spin and market something the right way you can sell absolutely anything.

02-08-2004, 02:26 AM	#30
beemk CLICK HERE Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 20,829	i bought a jump to conclusions mat __________________ I host with Vacares

02-08-2004, 02:37 AM	#32
PlayGirl Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Sin City Posts: 1,062	i forgot all about those...

02-08-2004, 02:38 AM	#34
polish_aristocrat Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 40,377	Ok, just checked google and apparently it was for real But don't tell me poeple were paying for rocks they could find on the street. __________________ I don't use ICQ anymore.

02-08-2004, 02:38 AM	#35
polish_aristocrat Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 40,377	Ok, already saw KRL's answer. __________________ I don't use ICQ anymore.

02-08-2004, 09:25 AM	#36
kowntafit Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Australia Posts: 4,667	Great story!

02-08-2004, 09:27 AM	#37
myjah Back in the harbor Industry Role: Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 11,482	i didnt know people sold pet rocks...i thought kids just grabbed them from the driveway __________________ VP of Marketing AVN Media Network Skype: AVNJill [email protected]

02-08-2004, 09:32 AM	#38
Slick Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Houghton, MI Posts: 7,338

02-08-2004, 10:13 AM	#41
SureFire Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: internet Posts: 4,398	biglou, Thanks for links.