When a Man Took a Joke in a Pepsi Ad Seriously, Chaos Ensued

When a Man Took a Joke in a Pepsi Ad Seriously(ˈsi(ə)rēəslē), Chaos Ensued(enˈso͞o)

Matt Parker on the Time Someone Tried to Buy a
Jet Plane Using Pepsi Points

By Matt Parker

In 1995 Pepsi ran a promotion where people could collect Pepsi Points and then trade them in for Pepsi Stuff. A T‑shirt was 75 points, sunglasses were 175 points, and there was even a leather(ˈleT͟Hər) jacket(ˈjakət) for 1,450 points. Wearing all three at once would get you some serious 1990s points.

The TV commercial where they advertised the points‑for‑stuff concept featured someone doing exactly that.

But the people making the commercial wanted to end it on some zany(ˈzānē) bit of “classic Pepsi” craziness(ˈkrāzēnəs). So wearing the T‑shirt, shades(SHād), and leather jacket, the ad protagonist(prōˈtaɡənəst, prəˈtaɡənəst) flies his Harrier(ˈharēər) Jet to school. Apparently(əˈparəntlē,əˈpe(ə)r-), this military(ˈmiləˌterē) aircraft could be yours for 7 million Pepsi Points.

The joke is simple enough: they took the idea behind Pepsi Points and extrapolated(ikˈstrapəˌlāt) it until it was ridiculous(rəˈdikyələs). Solid comedy writing. But then they seemingly didn’t do the math. Seven million sure does sound like a big number, but I don’t think the team creating the ad bothered to run the numbers and check that it was definitely big enough.

But someone else did. At the time, each AV‑8 Harrier II Jump Jet brought into action cost the United States Marine(məˈrēn) Corps over $20 million and, thankfully, there is a simple way to convert between USD and PP: Pepsi would let anyone buy additional points for 10 cents each. Now, I’m not familiar with the market for second-hand military aircraft, but a price of $700,000 on a $20 million aircraft sounds like a good investment. As it did to John(jän) Leonard(ˈlenərd), who tried to cash in on this.

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https://lithub.com/when-a-man-took-a-joke-in-a-pepsi-ad-seriously-chaos-ensued/