A legal battle has erupted over a seemingly innocuous commercial in which Pepsi uses the words "Pepsi points" and "Harrier jet" in the title. The commercial shows a child driving a car with a humorous claim that there are 7 million Pepsi points, which assumes that the person drinks enough Pepsi to earn a total of 7,000 points for the entire year of their life. Sources: 2
John Leonard, however, did not see the humor and decided that the Pepsi commercial was a legally binding offer. Bizarrely, Pepsi got the company responsible for the TV commercial to reply that the offer was clearly a joke, adding that they found it hard to believe anyone was actually taking it seriously. Sources: 0, 2
To avoid a copycat lawsuit, Pepsi quickly changed the jet needed at that point to $700 million, but it's fair to say they started insulting themselves. Sources: 0
Oddly enough, Pepsi did not forward the letter to them, but to the advertising company responsible for the commercial, which responded to Leonard that the offer was clearly a joke, adding that they found it hard to believe that anyone was actually taking it seriously. Perhaps Pepsi was at least a little nervous about this issue, and to avoid a copying process, it changed the price of the Jet ad from $7,000 Pepsi Points to $700 million, or perhaps even more importantly, from the original offer of $1 million. All this was done after Leonard sued Pepsi for fraud, breach of contract and misleading advertising, but not before Leonard sued her. Sources: 0, 4
All of these issues have relevance to Leonard's lawsuit against Pepsi for fraud, breach of contract and misleading advertising, but they must be resolved before she sues PepsiCo, the maker of Pepsi. Sources: 0, 7
PepsiCo, Inc. thought it was a pretty good joke to pretend to give away a Harrier fighter jet. An ad for Pepsi Points showed a 13-year-old child collecting 7 million Pepsi points and exchanging them for a vertically launched Harriers jet. PepsiCo won't give me a copy of the ad, except to say they said they would give away the "Harrier Jet" after I collected the 7 million Pepsi points. Sources: 7, 8
PepsiCo, Inc. thought it was a pretty good joke to pretend to give away a Harrier fighter jet. The company stopped laughing after John D.R. Leonard tried to dismantle Pepsi, but not before he did so. The New York-based company is currently bottling a Pepsi Stuff TV commercial in which Pepsi drinkers will receive a "Harrier Jet" as a reward for participating in a sweepstakes for a $7 million Pepsi points program. Sources: 3, 8
The company stopped laughing after John D.D.R. Leonard tried to dismantle Pepsi, but not before he did so. The New York-based company is taking part in a sweepstakes for a Pepsi Stuff TV commercial in which Pepsi drinkers will receive a "Harrier Jet" as part of a $7 million Pepsi points program as a reward. But after doing some research after seeing it, he realized it was a great deal to get a Harrier fighter jet for $1,000 (about $2,500 in today's dollars). Sources: 0, 3
In 1995, the Harrier Jet was worth $33 million, and he forgot a point for every 2-liter bottle of Pepsi he bought. Sources: 0
The White House said the Harrier jet could not be sold to civilians, which in the case of the marsh harrier would have meant it would have been deprived of the ability to land, take off and land in practice, rendering it unairworthy. That meant he could have picked it up for about $7 million. The case involved a dispute between the Air Force and Leonard Nimoy, the former head of Lockheed Martin, stemming from a disagreement over whether or not there was a valid contract. Sources: 0, 6
The only actual file I can find is in the alleged US District Court for the Southern District of New York, which ruled in favor of defendant Pepsico. Sources: 5, 6
CNN reported the story, quoting Pentagon officials as saying that if John Leonard had won the case at all, Pepsi would not have been able to acquire the Harrier jets because their ownership by private individuals would have been illegal. If everything had gone the way Leonhard did, he would have ended up with a full jet, but the Pentagon nullified the promotion in September 1997 when it announced that the $33.8 million jet was not for sale and was in flying condition. Sources: 5
The court sided with Pepsi and ruled that no objective person could reasonably conclude that the commercial actually offered the consumer a Harrier jet. Pepsi itself has since updated its commercial, increasing the number of points needed for the jet from 7 million to 700 million. Speaking of Pepsi, the 2017 Pepsi ad, which featured a picture of a jet with the words "Pepsi for sale," left everyone in a bad taste. Updated to update: Pepsi itself has updated its commercial with a new version of the ad.
