October 12, 2023 – Chia Pets

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today we’re spotlighting the year 1977, the year Chia Pets first went on sale! It’s unclear who invented Chia Pets, but they were discovered by an ad executive named Joe Pedott at a housewares show in Chicago. He ended up buying the rights to the product and he began marketing them under his San Francisco-based company, Joseph Enterprises. Depending on who you ask, they came up with the catchphrase “Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia” either in an agency brainstorming session or during a night out at a bar! Either way, someone pretended to stutter “chia” and Pedott ran with it.
The Chia Pet was first introduced in September 1977. The first Chia Pet was actually a Chia human, known as “Chia Guy”. The became super popular in the 80s, with the introduction of the Chia Ram, the first widely distributed Chia Pet. They eventually introduced other animals, like kittens, puppies, frogs, and pigs. The first licensed Chia Pets were sold in 2000, with Looney Tunes characters. Other licensed characters soon followed, including Garfield, Shrek, and The Simpsons. In 2008, the company started making Chia Pets of real-life public figures, starting with President Barack Obama. Sales of Chia presidential candidates predicted the outcome of the next two elections!
In the late 90s, The New York Times included a Chia Pet in a time capsule, along with a can of SPAM, a Purple Heart medal, a Beanie Babie, a Betty Crocker cookbook, and more. The capsule is housed at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC and will be opened in the year 3000.
Around 500,000 Chia Pets are sold each year in the U.S. More than 25 million have been sold to date. Learn more here.