This incredible story dates back to 1975. Gary Dahl, a salesman
from California, was one day having drinks with his friends. He listened to his friends
discussing about pets, how difficult it was taking care of cats, dogs, birds,
and other pets, how they made a mess of their homes, and how hard it was to
control their behavior when their friends or guests visited their homes and how
costly it was to maintain them.
As he went
home, Gary could not help thinking about what his friends were discussing and
as he pondered over it, a brilliant idea took shape in his mind. Why not a pet
that did not cost much, that did not mess up homes and was not a nuisance and was easy to take care of! Like lightning an idea struck him, why not a “Pet
Rock”!
Charged with
his incredible idea, Gary went to a building material store and bought few
rocks of different shapes and texture for less than a penny each. He made a beautiful
“pet box”, put some straw in it and added a nice label that read “this box
contains one genuine pedigreed Pet Rock”. He even added perforations to the box so that
there was air circulation for the Pet Rock! He wrote a “Pet Rock Training
Manual” with step-by-step instructions on how to take care of the Pet Rock (how
to make your pet roll over, make your pet play dead, house-train your pet, …).
Gary was either
a good natured guy who was just trying to be helpful to his friends or he was a
genius who had a good understanding of human vanity and human weakness.
Whatever he was, Gary was ready to sell his invention.
Would anyone
fall for such a stupid gag, one would have wondered! People collect pebbles and
shells, and other stuff but who would pay for a piece of rock you can find just
about anywhere!
Well, when Gary introduced few boxes, his friends were thrilled with it. Soon news of the novel pet spread like wild fire. Gary was on the way to becoming a millionaire. Within months a million Pet Rocks were sold each for $3.95.
Many people
were intrigued at the success of the Pet Rock. Some people were so outraged at
the very idea of rocks being sold as a pet, they harassed Gary with lawsuits
and threats. But nothing stopped Gary. He became a kind of inspiration to many people and even appeared on talk shows.
Experts who discussed about it at length, agreed that once in a
while such “useless dumb jokes” become successful because it gave some people “few
moments of absolutely meaningless pleasure in a troubled world”!
Some may say
that the people of those times must have been raving mad or plain stupid to
fall for such a gag! Well, stupidity and foolishness is not restricted to
“certain times” or “certain generations”. People buy Pet Rocks even today. It is sold online for $12.95, with an
added bonus of a leash. Hard to believe it? It can be ordered at Pet Rock Online .
Detailed
step-by-instructions with pictures is also available for taking care of the Pet
Rock. One such resource is at Pet Rock Care Manual .
You can even
get a “Geeky” Pet Rock at Geeky Pet Rock. What is so geeky about it?
Well, the Pet Rock has a USB connected to it. The other end of the USB can be
connected to your laptop, desktop or any other smart device that has USB port.
So what does the Geeky Pet Rock do? Nothing, it just sits there connected to
your computer, without disturbing you! A sort of “being closely connected to your life”!
Over time, pet
rocks have become quite popular among adults and children. Recently some school
students sold pet rocks to collect money for fire fighters. Someone has even written a poetry on pet rock.
I am sure everybody must have heard of Tape Rewinder. During those days when Audio Cassette Players and VCR’s were the latest inventions, Tape Rewinders were quite popular. It was believed that rewinding the tape on Audio Cassette Players and VCR’s was not good because frequent rewinding of the tape would spoil the system. Tape Rewinder was a better option.
Will anyone in their right mind buy bull crap? Obviously, there are people (30,000 to be exact) who did just that!
"Cards Against Humanity” is a typical card game. According to
the makers of the game “Cards Against Humanity is a party game for horrible
people. Unlike most of the party games you've played before, Cards Against
Humanity is as despicable and awkward as you and your friends”.
It was reported by the news media (Black Friday) that on 28
November last year, the makers of this card game suspended the sale of the
cards, instead they sold $180,000 worth of Bull Crap as a protest against
consumerism. 30,000 shoppers bought the Bull Crap packaged in beautiful
designer boxes. From the report it appears that many shoppers were disappointed to
find real Bull Crap in the box. Honestly, what else did they expect!
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