Chia Pet
The "Ch-ch-ch-Chia!" terra cotta planter that's outlasted almost every other novelty fad from its era — and is still a top holiday gift decades later.
Chia Pet was a genuine nationwide craze decades before "going viral" was a phrase — and it's still made and sold today. This is a genuine pre-internet product — a real, nationwide sales phenomenon decades before social media existed, spread by nothing but word of mouth, in-store demonstration, and traditional advertising. Many of these are still in production today, largely unchanged.
Why it's trending
Joseph Pedott discovered the Chia Pet concept being imported from Oaxaca, Mexico at a Chicago housewares show in 1977, licensed it, and built an ad campaign around the now-iconic jingle.
Unlike most 1970s novelty fads, it never really stopped selling — roughly 90% of sales still happen during the holiday season, and it's been preserved in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
