Pet Rock

Now who in their right mind would buy a rock marketed as a pet?

Apparently, lots of people--good enough to turn Gary Dahl into a shotgun multi-millioner in 1975. 

Six months was all it took for the advertising executive to market plain old rocks to people who were fed up with their high-maintenance pet dogs and cats and African lovebirds and iguanas and discus fish.

Those were indeed crazy times, and a fad is a fad. 

Sold for  $3.95, the Pet Rock kit included:

1. A plain old rock (gathered from a beach in Mexico)
2. Hay, to keep the rock cozy and comfortable
3. A custom cardboard box, complete with breathing holes
4. A training manual to get your pet rock house-trained, and teach it new tricks which include sit, stay, play dead, roll over, and the very easy attack--the latter involving ample wrist control from the pet owner.

And because the rocks were just sourced for about 65 cents, the box and training manuals for under 30 cents, and the hay for virtually nothing (a $3 profit for every rock)--5 million dollars of sales in just six months propelled Dahl into millionaire status all of a sudden.

Of course, the only drawback of the Pet Rock: you can't post a ridiculous number of pictures of you and your geological pet on Facebook--like so many cat lovers or dog lovers or iguana lovers or African lovebird lovers or discus fish lovers out there--without looking like a fool. 

But then again, why not?