When Pepsi Joked About Giving Away a Fighter Jet

Documentaries on Netflix are a dime a dozen, however a brand new trailer has caught our consideration. Pepsi, The place’s My Jet? is ready to chronicle a school scholar’s battle with the soda empire over a sweepstakes business that guarantees a buyer might – in idea – win a $23 million Harrier fighter jet, simply by shopping for an entire bunch of Pepsi.

A 1996 Pepsi TV business promised in case you collected 7,000,000 “Pepsi Factors,” you’d win your Harrier. It was a part of the advertising and marketing marketing campaign for the “Drink Pepsi Get Stuff” initiative launched by the corporate on the time. Appears easy sufficient, doesn’t it? Purchase sufficient Pepsi, get an extremely superior navy fighter jet. Pepsi most likely wasn’t anticipating anybody to take up a proposal like that, however one school scholar and his wealthy buddy determined to offer it a go.

Seven million Pepsi factors is plenty of soda – an excessive amount of for anyone individual to drink with out passing away in a really painful method. John Leonard, our hero on this documentary, did the mathematics and realized he’d want to purchase 1.4 million 12-packs of the soda. That will price tens of millions of {dollars} to drag off.

However the duo seen a loophole in Pepsi’s level system. You might purchase Pepsi factors straight, somewhat than amassing them by way of soda purchases. That meant – in idea – the Harrier might be had for simply $700,000. That’s a steal when in comparison with the $23 million asking value for a jet able to vertical touchdown.

As you’ll have imagined, this saga led to a lawsuit between the Harrier-wanters and the soda firm. Pepsi contested that the advert was clearly a joke; the jet-wanters level out, accurately, that there’s no fantastic print claiming the Harrier provide as such. The trailer doesn’t give away who wins this battle. For that we’ll have to move over to Netflix on November 17. Who doesn’t love a David and Goliath story?