Nostalgia Central

HOME NEWS DECADES MUSIC TELEVISION POP CULTURE MOVIES SHOP UK SHOP USA HELP

  Established in 1998, Nostalgia Central is your one stop reference guide through five decades of music, movies, television, pop culture and social history


 

Pet Rocks 


The Pet Rock was probably the biggest toy fluke of the 20th century. Can you imagine people today buying a rock decorated with animal features? 

Created in 1975 by an advertising executive called Gary Dahl - he brought the small smooth rocks from a Mexican beach and packaged them in a tiny box with air holes. The true genius was inside; a rock nestled on a bed of straw with a tiny book explaining how to train, play with and even house-train your pet rock.

Though initially just plain rocks, they were eventually sold with faces painted on, often sold as a group of pebbles, symbolising a small family or a 'rock' band. By Christmas 1975, two and a half tons of rocks had been sold and 75% of all daily newspapers in America had run Pet Rock stories.

A million rocks sold for $3.95 each in just a few months, and Gary Dahl - who decided from the beginning to make at least one dollar from every rock - had become an instant millionaire.

Copycat rocks flooded the market, including one cleverly marketed as "the Original Pet Rock," and dozens of quick-buck entrepreneurs joined the action selling such ancillary fun as Pet Rock Obedience Lessons and Pet Rock Burial-at-Sea Services. 

Immediately after Christmas 1975, Gary Dahl himself relabelled leftover Pet Rocks as Valentine's Day gifts for loved ones in need of a low-maintenance pet, but the Pet Rock quickly became last year's fad.