Inventor of the Pet Rock dies aged 78

[pwaldo]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...k-dies-78.html

Gary Ross Dahl, the creator of the wildly popular and bizarre 1970s fad the Pet Rock, has died aged 78 in southern Oregon.

Mr Dahl's wife, Marguerite Dahl, confirmed on Tuesday that her husband of 40 years died March 23 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

His rocks, which formed a brief but remarkably successful craze for several months in 1975, came packed in a cardboard box containing a tongue-in-cheek instruction pamphlet for 'care and feeding' and made him a millionaire.

Mr Dahl later estimated he had sold 1.5million of them at roughly $4 each by the time the fad fizzled only a few months after it hit the market.

In later years, given his success with the Pet Rock, he authored the self help book Advertising for Dummies.

Although its popularity was short-lived, the Pet Rock was no more than a standard rock packaged around an amusing marketing strategy.

To this day his creation divides opinion among those who look back on it with contempt, and those who admire his ability to sell it.

[habsheaven]

I miss my pet rock. One of the most obedient pets I ever had.

[Bobhikes]

One of the true Geniuses of our times. I still wish I could get one every once and a while.