The person behind ‘Sea Monkeys’ also profited from selling a product known as the ‘invisible goldfish.’ Yes, you heard that right.
If there’s ever been a testament to the power of marketing over product quality, it’s the ‘Invisible Goldfish.’
The man responsible, Harold von Braunhut, added the ‘von’ to his name in the 1950s to distance himself from his Jewish heritage. He also invented Sea Monkeys and ‘X-Ray Specs.’
For the uninitiated, Sea Monkeys are a type of brine shrimp that Braunhut discovered how to cultivate easily in a tank.
He then marketed them heavily in comic books, pitching them to children as a fun ‘instant pet’ for kids to nurture.
Another of Braunhut’s inventions was ‘X-ray specs,’ which merely created a slight distortion of vision.
But what about the Invisible Goldfish?
It turns out they were invisible because they didn’t actually exist.
The product was simply an empty tank that purportedly contained a fish you would never see, and surprisingly, people bought it.
Maybe it was a sign of the times, a way to pass the time before smartphones existed.
As indicated by his name change to distance himself from his Jewish family, Braunhut also had a disturbing aspect to his life.
He wasn’t just inventing quirky products for kids and their parents—he was also supplying weapons to the Ku Klux Klan.
Moreover, he was a frequent attendee of the Aryan Nations’ annual conference.
Aryan Nations was a neo-Nazi hate group founded in the 1970s, described as a ‘terrorist threat’ by the FBI in 2001, and later merged with other groups in 2009.
In 1984, Braunhut was listed as an ‘outstanding Aryan nationalist leader’ during an Aryan Nations Congress in Idaho.
He was unrepentant about his views, stating in an interview: “You know what side I’m on. I don’t make any bones about it.”
A 1988 Washington Post article titled Contrasts of a Private Persona revealed some peculiar items in Braunhut’s study.
These items included ‘a German war poster autographed in 1940 by Hermann Goering, an inscribed photograph of Benito Mussolini, and a print of World War II German aircraft signed by the Luftwaffe’s top four aces.’
So, the man who brought you Sea Monkeys and the Invisible Goldfish was also an unrepentant racist and neo-Nazi.
If you think that’s unsettling, just wait until you hear about the Austrian glass manufacturing company Swarovski…