It was the stupidest thing most of us had ever seen.

And it made its inventor a multi-millionaire.

It was 1975, and by then, we had invented Tupperware, spawned Elvis, and gone to the moon. The hit movie of the summer, “Jaws,” kept us out of the oceans, but Sony’s manufacture of VHS meant we could watch movies in our own homes, or gather in nightclubs to dance to the “four-on-the-floor” rhythm of disco. We were clever. Inventive.

And this was the next “big thing?”  An unremarkable rock bought at a hardware store for a penny apiece and put in a box with air holes?

 

The answer to both questions born of disbelief was “yes.”

“Pet rocks” were a thing, the ultimate gag gift packaged in a custom cardboard box complete with ventilation holes and straw bedding that imitated a pet carrier. Lest the purchaser think they were being ripped off, there was more!  A 32-page official training manual was included, along with instructions on how to properly raise and care for one’s new Pet Rock. Though it lacked directions on what to feed a pet rock, the manual offered gags, puns and jokes, as well as several commands that could be taught to the new “pet.” The rocks learned “sit” and “stay” effortlessly, and mastered the “play dead” trick immediately.

The fad lasted for about six months and made its creator, Gary Dahl, a millionaire, but he didn’t get rich off of the rocks sourced from Rosarita Beach in Mexico. No, it was the packaging that earned him enough money to later open a bar he named “Carry Nation” (after the temperance movement icon famous for attacking rum rooms with a hatchet). The rocks were a penny a piece, the straw was free, and the biggest expense was the die-cutting and manufacture of the boxes. Since Dahl had a printer for a client, he “tacked” the cost of the instruction booklet onto the main job which resulted in a batch requiring only a cut and trim, almost no cost to him. In turn, he sold the pet rocks for $3.95 each.

Dahl sold between 1.3 and 1.5 million of the rocks in a period of just a few months. Do the math.

A freelance advertising copywriter in financial trouble at the time, Gary Dahl knew the importance of timing and marketing. He suspected people would see the humorous nature of a pet rock, and sensed the public was in the mood for some frivolity. Once he thought of the idea, cultivated a couple of investors, and found a source for his material, he debuted the novelty item at a gift show in San Francisco in August of 1975. And then he waited.

Dahl didn’t have to wait long.  Neiman Marcus put in an order for 1,000 rocks almost immediately. Macy’s and Bloomingdales came soon after. Newsweek ran a story about the phenomenon, and word spread. By the time the holidays rolled around,  Dahl was selling up to 100,000 Pet Rocks a day. Time Magazine called Dahl’s idea the marketing coup of the decade.

How did Dahn come up with the idea in the first place?

Given the nature of our site, you have to know there was a dog in the story.

On a spring night in 1975, Dahl and his mates were tossing back a few at a local bar in Los Gatos. As friends do, they complained to each other about this thing and that. Soon they swapped stories about how time consuming their pets were.  The care and the attention their cats and dogs demanded, to say nothing of the time and money they often cost. Feeling little pain by then, Dahl joked that his pet didn’t need feeding, grooming, bathing, vetting, or exercise because it was a pet rock.

Oh, the irony. In truth, Dahl was an animal lover who was rarely without a noisy menagerie of chickens, goats, dogs and cats in his life including a Shiba Inu who was among the most opinionated of Dahl and his wife’s gaggle of pets, this according to the Mercury News. 

We can’t write that a Shiba Inu inspired the Pet Rock (which can still be found on Amazon), but we tend to think that the dogs in our lives inspire us and make us who we are.

Gary Dahl passed away in 2015 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 78. By then, he had sold his company, Rock Bottom Productions. You can see more of the instruction booklet for the Pet Rock here.

Image of pet rock box was released into the public domain by its author, Hempdiddy, at English Wikipedia. Image of Shiba Inu on a rock by ©otsphoto | Dreamstime