The Original Chia Pet Commercial?

Whenever I see a Chia Pet commercial it reminds me that the holiday season is approaching and that the Chia would make for a wonderful gift. I guess I am thinking this because secretly I have always wanted a Chia Pet and have never bought or received one (something I think I will remedy this weekend).

Going to the YouTubes for a blast of nostalgia, I found two commercials claiming to be the original Chia Pet Commercial. I would have sworn that this one, with the Chia jingles was the original.

But then I saw this one that has no jingle and it seems very familiar as well and since it is a little bit more low-tech, I would have to think that this was actually the original Chia pet commercial. The clincher that the 2nd one is more “original?” That it features the Ram, which was the original Chia animal, which was released in 1982. The 1st commercial was also produced that year, but it featured Chia animals that premiered in 1984.

Marketed by Joe Pedott and produced by the San Francisco, California-based company, Joseph Enterprises Inc.. Pedott first learned about Chia Pets when he attended a housewares show in Chicago in 1977. The first Chia Pet, Chia Guy, was created on September 8, 1977 and a trademark registration was filed on Monday, October 17, 1977.

I dug up some old newspaper ads of the original Chia Pet from 1978 to 1982. All of them feature the Ram. In 4 years, the price of a Chia Pet just about doubled from under 5 bucks to just under 10 bucks.

Chia Pets achieved popularity in the 1980s following the 1982 release of a ram, the first widely marketed Chia Pet. Which is the star of the above commercials. Ch-ch-ch-chia!