Gary Dahl, the inventor of the pet rock passed away.
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It was a craze to rival the Hula-Hoop, and even less explicable. For a mere three dollars and 95 cents, a consumer could buy ... a rock a plain, ordinary, egg-shaped rock of the kind one could dig up in almost any backyard.
The wonder of it was, for a few frenzied months in 1975, more than a million consumers did, becoming the proud if slightly abashed owners of Pet Rocks, the fad that Newsweek later called one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever.
Gary Dahl, the man behind that scheme described variously as a marketing genius and a genial mountebank died on March 23 at 78. A down-at-the-heels advertising copywriter when he hit on the idea, he originally meant it as a joke. But the concept of a pet that required no actual work and no real commitment resonated with the self-indulgent 70s, and before long a cultural phenomenon was born.
The man knew how to market things, that's for sure.
Charlie Brown had no comment at the time of thread publication.
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I ran away from home with my buddy Gary Dahl when I was a kid.
He did not invent the pet rock, so far as I know.
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A rolling stone gathers no moss, but pet rocks did garner much green. Though, come to think of it, not as much as The Rolling Stones.
Rest in peace, Gary.
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Originally Posted by shilala:
I ran away from home with my buddy Gary Dahl when I was a kid.
He did not invent the pet rock, so far as I know.
May have been your "Gay Doll" Scott
:-)
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