Pet Rocks - the fad in the 70s

Pet Rock
By Patrick Mondout
Before there were Koosh balls, before there were Cabbage Patch Kids, there were Pet Rocks. Perhaps the most endearing (if not enduring) fad of the Super70s, this gem of an idea was the brainchild of an advertising executive from California named Gary Dahl. Not content with traditional pets, which he considered too messy, costly, and misbehaved, he had taken on a clean, cheap and well-behaved rock as his pet. When told of his choice of pets, his friends first thought was that he was stoned. However, they soon agreed it was a good idea and Dahl spent a few weeks preparing a Pet Rock Training Manual. Topics included: "How to make your Pet Rock roll-over and play dead" and "How to house-train your Pet Rock." Little did he know that fame and fortune was just a stone's-throw away.
Dahl packaged the rock with his manual in a cardboard box designed to look like a pet carrying case and began selling them at $3.95 each. He introduced them at a gift show in San Francisco in August of '75 and, as an ad executive, was savvy enough to create a press release which he sent out, complete with his picture, to virtually every major media outlet. In October Newsweek carried an article on the fad and dozens of local newspapers picked up the story. Soon even staid Neiman Marcus was carrying them. Dahl's personal 15 minutes of fame culminated with an appearance on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Culture/Fads/Pet_Rocks.asp