Pepsi, where’s my jet?

This Netflix series is about the battle between John Leonard and Pepsi.

In the 1990s, there was a fierce battle between Coca Cola and Pepsi in the USA. Pepsi was distinguished by commercials featuring famous athletes and artists. In addition, they had set up a savings campaign. You got points with every Pepsi product. This way you could save for all kinds of Pepsi merchandise. There was a catalogue of products such as T-shirts, sunglasses and even a leather jacket. These articles were presented in the TV commercial, but there was also an image of a fighter jet, a so-called Harrier Jet. According to the commercial, it cost 7 million Pepsi points.

John Leonard saw the commercial and decided to start saving. The jet was worth more than $30 million and he saw his chance. A business plan was created and presented to his friend Todd Hoffman. He appreciated the efforts of his younger friend, but also saw the unfeasibility of the plan. By chance, John came across a Pepsi savings catalogue and read that you could buy missing points for 10 cents. 7 million times 10 cents are $700.00. Now Todd was interested. There was nothing in the small print that precluded saving for a fighter jet. Todd wrote his friend a check for $700,000 and it was turned over to Pepsi.

At Pepsi, they laughed at the idea at first, but they had no idea how serious John and Todd were. What ensued was years of litigation that eventually resulted in a judge ruling the case, declaring that everyone should understand that it was a joke. John and Todd ended up being left empty-handed.

Source: Netflix Series: Pepsi, where is my jet?