THE TEXT
PEPSI AND LEONARD: PROMISES AND LIES?
John Leonard collected his Pepsi Points and
now he wants his prize: a British Aerospace AV-8
Harrier fighter jet. And he's not joking. An
apparent spoof ad which claimed you could win
a jet by drinking obscene amounts of Pepsi
prompted a young man to make the ad's makers
eat their words.
John Leonard collected his Pepsi Points
and now he wants his prize: a British
Aerospace AV-8 Harrier fighter jet. And
he's not joking. The 21-year-old
business student sued PepsiCo Inc.,
demanding that the soft-drink maker
give him a Harrier jet like the one
pictured in a Pepsi Stuff TV commercial.
Leonard saw a commercial about the
Pepsi Stuff promotion, in which
customers who had racked up points by
drinking Pepsi could claim a variety of
prizes.
Those who finish a 12-pack of cans, for
example, earn five points. As a joke, the
company also "offered" the $70-million
fighter jet for 7 million points. That
means Leonard would have had to drink
16,800,000 cans of Pepsi to earn the
Harrier, except that during August -when all point values double -- he
would have had to finish only 8,400,000
cans.
Pepsi says the commercial was a spoof
and claims it has a perfect right to use
humor in its advertising. "If we have to
put disclaimers on spots that are
obviously farces, where does it end?" a
Pepsi spokesman asked.
Leonard, who didn't want to drink that
much Pepsi, said he called the company
and was told he could buy Pepsi Points
for 10 cents each. So, Leonard rounded
up five investors who put up the
$700,000 he needed to claim his prize.
"Pepsi failed and refused to process the
items, and more importantly, failed and
refused to provide the new Harrier jet to
Leonard," the suit says. Two more
attempts to claim the jump-jet also
were rejected, the suit says.
Leonard has denied his actions are a
publicity stunt or an attempt to get
Pepsi to settle out of court. He saw the
plane as an entrepreneurial venture,
saying perhaps he could take customers
on thrill rides.
However, even if he wanted a United
States Marine Corps Harrier, he would
not be able to obtain one because the
Pentagon will not allow their public
sale. The plane, which can lift straight
up and then fly forward, would be quite
expensive for John Leonard to operate
anyway because it uses seven to eleven
gallons of fuel a minute.
The sides met last week to try to resolve
the dispute, but failed.
VOCABULARY
sue - žalovat
rack up points - nasbírat body
claim a variety of prizes - dělat si nárok na různé
druhy cen
except that… - akorát že…
spoof - parodie
disclaimers - notes warning you not to do what
you're going to do anyway (such as on cigarette
packs)
TV spots - short films designed to make you do
things you may have never even thought of
before, in other words advertising
farce - fraška
round up - shromáždit
put up money - přispět penězi na…
item - položka, věc
publicity stunt - crazy thing done to attract
attention of as many people as possible
settle - dohodnout se, urovnat spor
venture - riskantní podnik
thrill rides - rides that are supposed to give you a
thrill, e.g. in amusement parks
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PEPSI AND LEONARD: PROMISES AND LIES?