The rocks came in a handy pet carrier with air holes so the rock could get fresh air. There was a handy 20 page care guide included, instructing the owner how to teach the rock to perform tricks such as “Stay”, “Roll”, or “Play Dead”, and how to know if your rock is sick or in distress.
They also enjoy rock concerts.
“Look at the guy that invented the pet rock. He was a genius!”
“?”
“He made a million dollars, didn’t he?”
I didn´t realize THIS is the pet rock they were talking about in Office Space. I remember in the 1980s, I’d see rocks with googley eyes glued to them and thought THAT was “the pet rock”, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me because I don’t think that would have been trademarkable.
Guess that should teach me about jumping to conclusions.
Not only did he give us pet rocks… according to wikipedia he entered, and won, a contest for writing bad purple prose, beating over 4000 other entrants, with the following gem,
The heather-encrusted Headlands, veiled in fog as thick as smoke in a crowded pub, hunched precariously over the moors, their rocky elbows slipping off land’s end, their bulbous, craggy noses thrust into the thick foam of the North Sea like bearded old men falling asleep in their pints.
Guy died in 2015 at 78.
An Old Timey Podcast did an episode on him and pet rock, it was quite interesting
This explains a lot about the economy that followed in the US. If people will buy a rock just because of how its packaged with some cutesy marketing copy…but his was tongue-in-cheek and the consumer was in on the joke. Now companies treat the consumer as the joke.