Pet Rock
It’s often the unexpected things you learn which are the most satisfying. You might start learning golf and hear from your instructor about a great new Chinese restaurant near to where you live. Or you might be on your way to an art gallery to catch the latest portrait exhibition and pick up a flyer for a comedy act you never heard about. And so it was, whilst speed-reading Seth Godin’s The Bootstrapper’s Bible, that I learned about Pet Rocks:
From wikipedia: “Pet Rocks were a 1970s fad conceived in Los Gatos, California by an advertising executive, Gary Dahl. The first Pet Rocks were ordinary gray pebbles bought at a builder’s supply store and marketed as if they were live pets. The fad lasted only about six months, ending with the Christmas season in December 1975; but in its short run, the Pet Rock made Dahl a millionaire”
“In 1975, Dahl established “Rock Bottom Productions”, a company that sold the rocks for US$3.95 each. The pebbles, imported from Rosarito Beach in Baja California, Mexico, were swaddled in excelsior and nestled in a small cardboard box, similar to a pet carrier. A “Pet Rock Training Manual”, with instructions on how to properly raise and care for one’s newfound pet (notably lacking instructions for feeding), was included.
The instruction manual contained several commands that could be taught to the new pet. While “sit” and “stay” were fairly easy to accomplish, “roll over” usually required extra effort on the part of the trainer. “Come” was found to be impossible to teach reliably.”
Awesome!