In 1975, an advertising copywriter named Gary Dahl put ordinary beach stones in cardboard boxes with air holes, added a joke training manual, and sold about 1.5 million of them at $3.95 each. Within months he was a millionaire. By February 1976, the craze was over. This animated explainer follows the Pet Rock from a joke in a bar to a national fad and back down again.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:20 The Joke

1:10 The Manual

2:03 The Box

3:11 The Launch

4:18 The Christmas Rush

5:19 Why It Worked

6:25 The Crash

7:24 Knowing When to Stop

8:41 The Real Product

• About 10 minutes, 1080p at 60 fps, with an English AI voiceover

• Original synthesized music and sound effects, mixed to -14 LUFS

• Original vector animation in a flat, neon explainer style

• Fact-checked: packaging, storytelling, timing, attention, and why fads end

• Education and entertainment only, not financial advice

The story of how a joke you could hold in your hand became one of the strangest products of the 1970s.