With just over a year on the air, Apple TV + has shown that it is not afraid to take risks by offering new content. Thus, the streaming platform surprised us with different formats and stories, its own or the product of agreements with other studios. And now it will add ‘The Jet ‘, a series based on a controversial Pepsi campaign in the 90s.
The new documentary series, ‘The Jet’, will be at the helm of James Lee Hernández and Brian Lazarte, McMillions on McDonald’s Monopoly game which earned them an Emmy nomination. In this project, they will focus on the Pepsi campaign in 1995, which challenged people to collect Pepsi points in exchange for prizes, including a Harrier plane. And yes, someone has risen to the challenge.
Apple TV + launches documentary on Pepsi
The campaign was launched under the slogan “Drink Pepsi, Get Stuff” and encouraged customers to earn points with the purchase of drinks which could later be exchanged for other goods, such as shirts or hats … even a supposedly Harrier fighter. The fighter plane offered in exchange for 7 million points, caught the attention of 21-year-old John Leonard, who came to an unexpected conclusion.
Pepsi offered a plane made up of 30 million dollars for 7 million points. Leonard also discovered a condition that specified that if a person already had 15 Pepsi points, they could purchase an unlimited number of additional points for any item they wanted for 10 cents a point.
As you can imagine, the student sent in the 15 Pepsi points with a form where he wrote “1 Harrier hunt” in the item description, and a check for 700 thousand dollars for the remaining points that were missing. Finally, he added his address and waited for the salesperson’s plane to arrive.
But in return, Leonard got the check back, with a note from Pepsi explaining that the Harrier was not “part of the promo”, it was also not included in the price book and that its inclusion in the ad was simply a “fantasy” to make it more entertaining. Plus, it included a bunch of coupons to apologize for “any misunderstanding or confusion.”
For Leonard, the answer was not enough and decided to take legal action against one of the most famous companies in the world. At that time, the lawsuit represented an unprecedented event that took approximately three years to resolve.
What happened next? Was the decision right at the time? “The Jet” will answer these questions.
