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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Dorothy Hernandez

Joe Pedott, founder of company known for the Chia Pet and the Clapper, dead at 91

Joe Pedott (center) discovered the Chia pet at a trade show, bought the rights and tinkered. The phrase “Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia” was created during an ad agency brainstorming session or a night out at a bar. (Sun-Times file photo)

Joseph Pedott, a native Chicagoan and the advertising mastermind behind the iconic ’80s products the Clapper and the Chia Pet, died recently at 91.

Services were held Tuesday for Mr. Pedott in San Francisco, where he moved in 1958 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1955 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and running his advertising business in Chicago.

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