Matt Cardy, Getty Images
Matt Cardy, Getty Images
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Gary Ross Dahl is a name you probably don’t know, but if you’re under 50, you know his product, the Pet Rock! He is the guy responsible for the 70’s crazy of buy a rock, a plain egg-shaped rock you could find anywhere.

The rocks sold for $3.95 and in the mid 70’s over one and half million sold. It was a craze for only a few months but did make Dahl a lot of money. Newsweek magazine called it ‘one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever’.

Gary Ross Dahl passed away at 78 on March 23. Dahl came to regret his ‘pet rock’ idea despite the fact he became a millionaire overnight. The idea came to him one night in bar when he was a freelance copywriter, and broke.

Dahl was also known as a marketing genius; he bought a bunch of smooth Mexican beach stones and went on to sell his ‘Pet Rocks’.

He bought the stones for a penny-a-piece, put them in a cardboard carrying case and had them on sale just in time for Christmas in 1975. The rocks came with a manual on care, feeding and training.  In a matter of month he sold 1.6 million Pet rocks.

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