The fizzy pop campaign that went flat?

Netflix’s new docuseries tells the cautionary tale of what can go wrong with marketing campaigns.

Netflix’s new docuseries tells the cautionary tale of what can go wrong with marketing campaigns.

It is the story of John Leonard, a college student from Seattle, who saw the Pepsi advertisement stating that consumers could collect points from buying Pepsi and exchange them for Pepsi merchandise. The ad included a scene where a teen lands an AV-8 Harrier II fighter jet and text suggesting that the plane could be acquired for seven million points.

John, together with his friend, found a loophole in the contest marketing materials which meant they could technically get the plane for only $700,000 and sent Pepsi a cheque. Pepsi insisted that the offer of a fighter plane was a joke and unsurprisingly refused to give John the jet. What followed was a long legal battle.

This story is a warning on the importance of marketing and legal teams working together. The case could have been avoided by strengthening the campaign T&Cs, including a disclaimer on the ad that the jet wasn’t actually available and having a strong marketing approvals process in place that involved legal sign off.

I won’t ruin the ending on whether Pepsi had to give John a jet or not…