Advertising executive Gary Dahl became a multimillionaire in 1975 by successfully convincing consumers to purchase literal rocks carefully packaged in cardboard boxes.

A closer look

Advertising executive Gary Dahl became a multimillionaire in 1975 by successfully convincing consumers to purchase literal rocks carefully packaged in cardboard boxes. Marketed as the ultimate low-maintenance companion, the "Pet Rock" was bulk-sourced from a Mexican beach for about a penny each and aggressively retailed for four dollars. The sheer genius wasn't the ordinary stone itself, but the accompanying 32-page training manual featuring deadpan instructions on how to teach your new pet to "sit" or "play dead" (a trick it naturally excelled at). Within six months, Dahl unloaded over 1.5 million units before the absurd cultural fad abruptly died, allowing him to smoothly walk away with massive profits. This spectacular phenomenon elegantly encapsulates the dark magic of consumer economics, proving that you don't actually need to invent a useful technological breakthrough when you can just effortlessly monetize basic human boredom using clever typography and some excellent public relations