I tried to take my mind of politics by watching the Netflix documentary Pepsi, Where's My Jet? Daina was asleep on the sofa. Otherwise, I don't think she would have been so amenable. This was strictly a boy's fantasy replete with Cindy Crawford as a guest.
For years, the soda company was trying to gain converts through its Pepsi Challenge, hoping to make up ground on Coca-Cola. It's not like Pepsi wasn't already a big player. PepsiCo owned fast food giants like KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, and signed exclusive deals with chain restaurants across the country to compete with Coke. But, celebrity endorsements don't hurt and Pepsi was paying big bucks to lure the top entertainers at the time. They struck gold with Cindy Crawford, the "it girl" of the 90s. Her commercial sparked a new generation of Pepsi drinkers. But, this is a fast paced industry and they constantly needed something new.
The most audacious commercial campaign was their gift catalog, simply entitled Pepsi Stuff. On the surface, it looked pretty bland but then they had the chutzpah to throw in a Harrier Jet. A very Michael Scott thing to do. To hear the chief advertiser tell the story, he wanted the fat kid from Sandlot in the lead role but Pepsi had its image to protect and went for someone a grade below Tom Cruise.
Unfortunately, no one did the math on the 7 million points required for a Harrier, figuring they were aiming at young teens. A 20-year-old college student John Leonard figured out he only needed $700,000 to buy the points to get the $32 million Harrier Jet. This saved the massive storage space and $4.3 million necessary to buy that many cans of Pepsi. He put his plan before Todd Hoffman, a millionaire friend of his. John had actually contacted the Pentagon to see if a civilian could purchase one. Kenneth Bacon, the spokesman for the Department of Defense at the time, said yes as long as it wasn't equipped with any missiles or radar system. You have to figure Hoffman never expected Pepsi to follow through on the offer and that he didn't have to worry about his money.
John however became obsessed with the idea and was notably peeved when Pepsi offered him coupons for two cartons of cola for his effort. He pressed his case only for PepsiCo to file a lawsuit against him in response. Hoffman liked Leonard enough to cover the legal expenses necessary for a countersuit. Todd had a bankruptcy lawyer in Miami prepare the case. After some initial give and take, Pepsi seemed willing to settle. However, the Pepsi heads who were interviewed said there was no way their lawyers would have offered a million dollars to settle the case, which John allegedly refused.
After failing to make much headway the first time around, Leonard and Hoffman hired a brash young law student Mike Avenatti to take on Pepsi. At this point it became a three-ring circus. Avenatti just wanted the attention that came with such a high profile case. As long as Pepsi didn't cash the check it didn't much matter what they did, but Avenatti pulled out all the stops, turning this tabloid story into front page news, much like he later did with Stormy Daniels.
Hoffman seemed to be enjoying the whole show, covering the legal expenses and numerous road trips that piled up as Avenatti went public with the story. John Leonard was hot property there for a while, appearing on radio and television talk shows nationwide. However, Avenatti wanted to play hardball, having dug up a Pepsi "numbers fever" scheme in the Philippines, and how the cola company had a history of promotions gone awry. This was too much for Hoffman, fearing Pepsi would respond in kind and refused to cover the massive smear campaign Avenatti had in mind.
By this point, the story had garnered enough attention that law firms were interested in the case. Hoffman and his Miami lawyer were able to find a prestigious New York law firm to take the case but PepsiCo was one step ahead of them the whole way and managed to get the case thrown out after four years of legal wrangling.
The story laid dead for two decades before Andrew Renzi came along. Apparently, Leonard had several offers but wanted something fun befitting his personality. Netflix financed Renzi, stretching the docu-series out over four short episodes when it could have easily been reduced to a one-hour documentary. Nevertheless, he brings up some interesting points like the advertising firm having initially promoted the Harriet Jet commercial in Canada with the caveat that it wasn't real. Renzi also adds humor by giving the Pepsi Challenge to the various interviewees. Mostly we find out about Leonard and Hoffman, both engaging persons with a passion for mountain climbing. Leonard's mom is pretty cool too.
The disappointing part is that Leonard didn't really work out any kind of point-sharing system or some other clever path to 7 million points. He was just lucky enough to find a backer. His main claim was the ad very definitely led persons to believe they could get a Harrier Jet with for $700,000 at ten cents a point. If that was the case, why didn't anyone else try it? Pretty much everyone knew it was a joke, but Leonard naively asserted that he believed it to be real.
Hoffman seemed to enjoy giving the kid his opportunity, covering the expenses until it went too far. Fortunately, Leonard was smart enough to realize when enough was enough, and built a lasting friendship out of the ordeal. What more can you ask for?
As for Cindy, she loved the iconic commercial so much she reenacted it recently, looking just as great in a white tank top and cut off denim shorts as she did in 1992, raising a million dollars for the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, where her brother was treated for leukemia.
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