the pet rock?

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

didnt that fade away in the 70's?

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

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

jDoG

yep

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 . . .

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

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

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

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

Hahahaha !! Nice question!

hehe

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

The keychain version LOL

Are you sure about this? My home town too.

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

Was it your company?

Like you: : 1orglaugh

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.

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

is that one yours?

i bought a jump to conclusions mat

hahahahhahahhahah, is that for real ?

i forgot all about those...

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

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.

Ok, already saw KRL's answer.

Great story!

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

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.

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

biglou,

Thanks for links.