Pepsi's $32,000,000 'offer' saw the company sued over military jet promise

One of the most famous contract law cases in America involves a man who sued Pepsi for not giving him a $32 million dollar fighter jet.

You might wonder exactly how the soft drink brand and a military plane are linked.

But those of us who grew up in the 90s will remember the iconic Pepsi advert which promised consumers a plane in exchange for a certain amount of points - albeit, jokingly.

At the time, competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi was raging, with both companies running major advertising campaigns.

Pepsi brought in Pepsi Points, which were earned by buying bottles of Pepsi and could be exchanged for prizes.

With the purchase of a fountain drink, you could get one point, a two-litre bottle would be two points, and a 12-pack would bag you five points.

Pepsi advertised the jet on TV (Netflix)

These could be redeemed on Pepsi merch items such as baseball caps (60 points) and T-shirts (80 points).

But some were a bit harder to earn - such as a mountain bike, which was thousands of Pepsi points.

A Pepsi TV ad claimed that a military-style fighter jet could be won for a staggering 7,000,000 points.

John Leonard, a 21-year-old business student at the time in 1995, found it was possible to purchase Pepsi Points for 10 cents each: thus seven million points cost $700,000.

The rules only required a minimum of 15 Pepsi Points worth of physical tags from Pepsi products beyond the purchased points.

So, Leonard convinced five investors to help him buy the remaining points, including his friend Todd Hoffman.

Leonard confidently sent his points and a check to PepsiCo to claim the jet.

But his request was denied, with the company responding that the commercial was a joke.

Leonard filed a lawsuit in Miami accusing PepsiCo of breach of contract, fraud, deceptive and unfair trade practices and misleading advertising.

He even hired political strategist - and later celebrity attorney - Michael Avenatti, who is currently in prison for felony fraud and extortion...

John Leonard (Netflix)

Anyway, the case was assigned to Judge Kimba Wood, who ultimately decided to grant the summary judgment in Pepsi’s favor.

“No objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier jet,” she wrote in her opinion. “If it is clear that an offer was not serious, then no offer has been made.”

This came after Pepsi offered a settlement of $750,000, which Hoffman and Leonard rejected.

"Now, sure, [I would have settled],” Leonard said on reflection in the 2022 Netflix documentary, Pepsi, Where's My Jet?

“But I still get a kick out of the fact that I had the chutzpah at that time to actually come to that conclusion. Probably wasn’t the smartest decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

Leonard v. Pepsico is now one of the most well-known contracts law cases in the US.

The Pepsi advert was later altered to increase the number of Pepsi Points required for the jet from seven million to 700 million. A 'just kidding' disclaimer was also added.

Pepsi, Where's My Jet? is available to stream now on Netflix.