The Chia Pet Story: How Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Sold 15 Million a Year

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When the New York Times sealed a time capsule in the year 2000 to be opened in the year 3000, a Chia Pet went inside. This episode explains how a grooved terracotta figurine earned that place. The trick is botanical. Seeds of Salvia hispanica turn sticky when soaked, so they cling to curved clay, and the porous terracotta slowly feeds them water from a hollow center until a coat of green sprouts appears in a couple of weeks.

The business began at a Chicago housewares show in 1977, where marketer Joseph Pedott spotted an import from Oaxaca, Mexico, brought in by Walter Houston, and negotiated the rights. His company, Joseph Enterprises, had a trademark filing by October 17 of that year. The breakthrough took until 1982, when a ram figurine made the sprouts read instantly as fleece and a time-lapse television commercial showed it growing in 30 seconds. From there the clay became a canvas for cartoon characters, presidents, and Bob Ross.

The first official Chia Pet was created on September 8, 1977, but early shapes such as a turtle felt abstract because turtles do not have fur.
The stuttering Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia catchphrase came from an ad agency brainstorming meeting where someone jokingly pretended to stutter the product's name.
Licensed versions followed for Garfield, Scooby-Doo, Shrek, The Simpsons, and SpongeBob, along with figures of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
Production began in Mexico and later moved to China to handle the volume, and in 2018 Joseph Enterprises was bought by NECA, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association.
As of 2019 about 15 million Chia Pets were sold each year, almost entirely during the holiday season.

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