One Of The Accessories Sold For Pet Rocks Was College Degrees, Including A Ph.D., Costing $10

Halloween can be a traumatic time for pets. Between the parties, costumes, and bombardment of trick-or-treaters, the non-human components of your family can find themselves a little stressed out, which is one of the reasons to spend the days leading up to Hallowe’en comforting and reassuring them.

Thank goodness, then, for Pet Rock Day, offering the perfect opportunity to pamper and spoil the special stone in your life.

• 1975 – Launched by advertising executive Gary Dahl, the pet rock was the antithesis of living pets in need of regular care. It did, however, come with a mean “attack” mode.
  • Inventor Gary Dahl said he came up with the idea while drinking at a bar and listening to other patrons complain about caring for their pets. Dahl said he had no such problems with his pet.  “Because I have a pet rock.”   It grew from there.
• 1975 – The Pet Rock took off when it was featured on The Tonight Show just before the Christmas shopping season.
• 1976 – A dip in pet rock sales led to its discontinuation.
• 1976 – Country singer Al Bolt even composed I’m In Love With My Pet Rock, about a young boy adopting a stray pet rock. It became #85 on the charts.
• 2001 – Dahl resurfaced as part of another marketing trend, the For Dummies series of books. Dahl penned Advertising for Dummies, which might just be his longest-lasting achievement, as it is still in print today.
• 2005 – Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items.  It’s a popular platform for artists and crafters to sell unique, custom-decorated pet rocks and related accessories.
• 2012 – Pet rocks re-enter the market.
• 2015 – Gary Dahl passed away due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. As for the rocks, you’ll still see them around, usually on the ground and pretty much anywhere else outside.
• 2016 – Nordstrom sold a rock in a leather pouch for $85.
• 2022 – And the spirit of the pet rock lives on today through a viral video on social media. In 2022, an old clip of Elmo feuding with a pet rock named Rocco resurfaced and garnered over 7 million views, spawning shady comments on Elmo’s official media accounts and a parody on Saturday Night Live.
• 2023 – What is surprising, though, is the fact that even in 2023, people were still buying pet rocks. Unlike Barbie, these rocks are not sold as playthings for children, but rather as things to be owned by adults.
• 2023 – Pet Rock returned to the market after appearing in the film Minions: The Rise of Gru. 
• 2026 – The Pet Rock is on sale in limited edition quantities on Amazon.
• For a mere $3.95, people could adopt their very own rock, supplied on a bed of hay in a well-ventilated box. Like all things, pet rocks are more expensive these days, but you could always catch a wild one for free – just remember that undomesticated rocks may be more difficult to handle.
• Newsweek once called the phenomenon of people purchasing Pet Rocks “One of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes in history.”
• Arguably, the biggest selling point was the training manual that came with each rock. Dahl was an advertising copywriter and knew how to craft a fun, pun-filled set of instructions. Chapters included how to teach your rock to “Sit,” “Stay,” and “Attack.”
• While “sit” and “stay” were effortless to accomplish, “roll over” usually required a little extra help from the trainer. “Come,” “stand,” and “shake hands” were found to be near-impossible to teach; however, “attack” was fairly simple (with some help from the owner’s force).
• It seems like an urban legend these days, but it was actually true. Dahl sold over 1.5 million Pet Rocks and became a millionaire in the process
• Dahl called his company Rock Bottom Productions. He used grey stones he found on Rosarito Beach in Baja, Mexico.
• According to its manufacturers, pet rocks are the only pets that you can own without worrying about feeding, bathing, walking, or even training them. That is because it is a stone!
• A 32-page official training manual titled The Care and Training of Your Pet Rock was included, with instructions on how to properly raise and care for one’s new Pet Rock (notably lacking instructions for feeding, bathing, changing, and so on).
• One of the accessories sold for Pet Rocks by other companies was college degrees, including a Ph.D., costing $10

Sources:

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