article_snippet.sent: Gary Ross Dahl, the creator of the wildly popular and bizarre 1970s fad the Pet Rock, has died aged 78 in southern Oregon.
article_snippet.sent: her husband of 40 years died March 23 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 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 her husband of 40 years died March 23 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease a millionaire.
article_snippet.sent: Gary Dahl, the creator of the wildly popular 1970s fad the Pet Rock, has died at age 78 in southern Oregon .
article_snippet.sent: Mr Dahl's later estimated Mr Dahl's had sold 1.5million of Gary Dahl, the creator of the wildly popular 1970s fad the Pet Rock at roughly $4 each by the time the fad fizzled only a few months after the fad hit the market.
article_snippet.sent: In later years, given Mr Dahl's success with the Pet Rock, Mr Dahl's authored the self help book Advertising for Dummies.
article_snippet.sent: Although Advertising for Dummies popularity was short-lived, the Pet Rock was no more than a standard rock packaged around an amusing marketing strategy.
article_snippet.sent: To this day Mr Dahl's creation divides opinion among those who look back on his creation with contempt, and those who admire Mr Dahl's ability to sell the Pet Rock.
article_snippet.sent: In 1975, Mr Dahl's was a Los Gatos, California, advertising executive when Mr Dahl's came up with the the Pet Rock idea.
article_snippet.sent: In 2000, Gary Dahl's Pet Rock  was a grand prize winner in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for dreadful prose.
article_snippet.sent: Gary Dahl's Pet Rock  winning entry read: '
article_snippet.sent: The Pet Rock craze 'was great fun when The Pet Rock craze ' happened,' his wife recalled in a telephone interview.
highlights_snippet.sent: The Pet Rock creator has died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: The Pet Rock creator made millions from absurd idea to sell a stone in a box as a 'Pet Rock'
  The product came with tongue-in-cheek instructions for 'care and feeding'
  
highlights_snippet.sent: The Pet Rock creator went on to author the self help book 'Advertising for Dummies' 