At the height of the so-called "Cola Wars" in 1996, second-ranked PepsiCo launched its largest promotional campaign to date in an attempt to overthrow Coca-Cola. As part of the "Pepsi" launch, the brand began running ads promising "the more Pepsi you drink, the more goodies you get." Consumers can use "Pepsi Points" to purchase a variety of products, from phone cards ( 35 points) to mountain bikes (3,300 points) and, according to the TV commercial, 7 million Pepsi points can buy a Harrier fighter jet. Although executives deemed the military plane's sky-high "price" high enough to suggest a joke, Netflix's four-part documentary Pepsi, Where's My Jet? Relives the story of John Leonard, a 21-year-old Seattle college student who took the ad as a challenge and decided to call the company's bluff.
According to The Hustle, every 12 cans of Pepsi are worth 5 cents, meaning Leonard would have had to consume nearly 17 million cans to reach that goal. But there was a loophole, as the Pepsi catalog only required participants to submit 15 cents of the cans and bottles they collected, and the rest could be purchased by mailing a check for 10 cents each. With help and funding from climbing partner Todd Hoffman, Leonard developed a business plan, researched promotional advertising case law, and convinced others he met while working as a mountain guide several investors to raise the $700,000 he raised. 7 million Pepsi points need to be purchased. (For context, a Harrier jet costs about $33 million to build, but it won't be available to the public anyway.)
After finally raising the needed funds, Leonard mailed his 15 points to PepsiCo along with a check for $700,008.50, including shipping. A few weeks later, he received a response that included a returned check, some coupons and a note explaining that the plane was just a "fantasy" part of a TV commercial. However, Leonard had already spent about $4,000 on legal advice and researching case law regarding deceptive advertising, so he hired a lawyer and continued looking for the plane.
Raymond E. McGovern Jr., a vice president at BBDO New York, the advertising agency that produced the Pepsi ads, responded to Leonard: "I find it hard to believe that you think the Pepsi ads did offer a new of Harrier jets," he added. "No reasonable person would agree with your analysis of the ad."
Leonard then filed a breach of contract lawsuit against PepsiCo, claiming that the ad constituted a binding offer. Despite this, he insisted he "did not wish to attract any public attention" as a result of his request for the aircraft. "I'm not trying to make a statement. I'm not looking for a solution. I just want a plane," he said, later explaining to The Associated Press that he "just wanted to accept the offer that PepsiCo made to the public."
However, PepsiCo countersued Leonard in New York, seeking $88,162 in attorney's fees and dismissing Leonard's claim as a frivolous lawsuit without the need for a trial. "Tens of millions of Americans and people around the world saw the scene, got the joke and laughed," a PepsiCo spokesperson told CBS. "Mr. Leonard saw the situation and Business consultants and lawyers were hired and legal action was decided."
After a three-year legal battle, Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of Pepsi-Cola on August 5, 1999. Although Leonard appealed in 2000, he ultimately lost.
As of August 2021, Leonard (who appears in the Netflix documentary with Hoffman) lives in Alaska, where he served as the chief mountain ranger at Denali National Park before being promoted to the National Park Service's Washington Division. As in Pepsi’s “Where’s My Jet?” As noted in , Leonard also "went on to further adventures and, most importantly, his beautiful wife and children.
In a recent interview with The Guardian , Leonard also commented on whether he had any reservations about the Netflix series bringing renewed attention to his case more than 20 years later, "I've been sensitive to it over the years because even People close have also said: "Well, you're an opportunist," he said. "A lawsuit like this ends up being likened to the McDonald's hot coffee case, that ambulance chase thing. This is wrong for me. In retrospect, this was opportunistic. Absolutely. But that's not always a bad thing. At that point I thought wholeheartedly that we were going to get this plane. "
He continued: "The dilemma I have today is, how could I have actually thought I was going to get this plane? I'm 48 years old now, and looking back, I'm like: What the hell are you, man?"
