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          <span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; height: 0; max-height: 0; max-width: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; mso-hide: all; visibility: hidden; width: 0;">
           The time Pepsi got sued for a $33m fighter jet by Zachary Crockett.
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                 The Hustle
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                Issue #171
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                 <img alt="The Hustle, Sunday, August 15, 2021" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fpepsi_jet.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; display: block;" width="600"/>
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                Sunday, August 15, 2021
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            <h2 style="font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 25px;">
             <strong>
              The time Pepsi got sued for a $33m fighter jet
             </strong>
            </h2>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 10px; font-style: italic; color: #737373; margin: 0;">
             In 1996, Pepsi ran a promotion that jokingly suggested entrants could win a military aircraft. One man took it very seriously.
            </p>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 24px; margin: 0;">
             <strong>
              BY
              <a style="color: #D62829; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">
               Zachary Crockett
              </a>
             </strong>
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In the spring of 1996, Pepsi debuted a hot new TV
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              commercial
             </a>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             It opens with a cocky teenager donning a Pepsi shirt. The text, “T-SHIRT 75 PEPSI POINTS,” appears to the beat of a military drum line.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Said teen then swaggers through a door in a leather jacket (“LEATHER JACKET 1,450 PEPSI POINTS”) and flips on a pair of blue-tinted sunglasses (“SHADES 175 PEPSI POINTS”).
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The narrator chimes in — “
             <em>
              The more Pepsi you drink, the more great stuff you’re gonna get!
             </em>
             ” — and the scene shifts to the teen landing a computer-generated
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              Harrier fighter jet
             </a>
             in front of his high school, blowing the clothes off a bewildered principal in the parking lot.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “HARRIER FIGHTER … 7,000,000 PEPSI POINTS” flashes across the screen as the music crescendos into a fade-out.
            </p>
           </td>
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            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fold_jet.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Via YouTube (nonfps)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The commercial was the national debut of a promotion called
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              Pepsi Stuff
             </a>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             It was, per
             <em>
              The
             </em>
             <em>
              New York Times
             </em>
             , the “largest promotional campaign in the company’s history” — one that Pepsi hoped would steal market share from Coca-Cola at the tail end of the decades-long
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              Cola Wars
             </a>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In total, this promotion cost Pepsi an
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              estimated
             </a>
             <strong>
              $200m
             </strong>
             ($350m today) to roll out, including $125m worth of merchandise.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Pepsi Stuff worked like so:
            </p>
            <ol style="font-size: 16px;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Billions of Pepsi products around the US were marked with “
              <strong>
               Pepsi Points
              </strong>
              .” A 2-liter bottle of Pepsi was worth 2 points; a 12-pack of cans yielded 5.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Customers could save up the points and redeem them for items listed in a
              <strong>
               Pepsi Stuff catalog
              </strong>
              .
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Customers could also purchase Pepsi Points for
              <strong>
               10 cents each
              </strong>
              .
             </li>
            </ol>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The catalog included
             <strong>
              53 items
             </strong>
             in total — most of which were your run-of-the-mill corporate swag: T-shirts, hats, and beach towels.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fpepsi_points.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Notably absent from this list of items was the
             <strong>
              Harrier fighter jet
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Most of the kids who saw the commercial — members of the so-called “
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              Pepsi Generation
             </a>
             ,” a new class of youthful consumers who cared more about lifestyle than brands — figured that the jet was part of Pepsi’s zany sense of humor and not a real prize.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But in Seattle, Washington, a young man named
             <strong>
              John Leonard
             </strong>
             wasn’t laughing.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              I’ll take the jet
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Leonard first saw the commercial during a Pacific Northwest test run in February of 1996.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Then a 21-year-old business student at Shoreline Community College, he saw the Harrier jet as a legitimate offer — and sniffed an opportunity for promotional arbitrage.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             He knew, from an interest in flying, that the Harrier was a US Marine Corps aircraft used extensively in the
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              Gulf War
             </a>
             . Capable of taking off vertically and carrying 10k pounds of bombs, it had been
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              called
             </a>
             the “most captivating and the most dangerous plane in the US military.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Moreover, it
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              cost
             </a>
             ~
             <strong>
              $33m
             </strong>
             to manufacture and — needless to say — wasn’t available to the general public.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             At
             <strong>
              7m
             </strong>
             Pepsi Points, the jet was a steal. So, he decided to go for it.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fleonard.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Leonard during a CBS interview in 1996 (CBS News, via YouTube)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Leonard was a 10-cans-per-day kind of guy.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But even at this high rate of consumption, collecting 7m points was a daunting task.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Each 12-pack of Pepsi was worth 5 points, meaning he’d have to consume
             <strong>
              16.8m cans
             </strong>
             to reach his mark. That amounted to:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               46k
              </strong>
              cans every day for 1 year
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               552k
              </strong>
              total ounces of Pepsi
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               2.5B
              </strong>
              calories and
              <strong>
               689m
              </strong>
              grams of sugar
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               ~$4m
              </strong>
              in expenditure
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Luckily, there was a workaround.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The catalog only required participants to submit 15 points they’d collected from cans and bottles; the rest could be bought directly from Pepsi for
             <strong>
              10 cents each
             </strong>
             by mailing in a check.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             All Leonard had to do to get 7m points was
             <strong>
              raise $700k
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Over several months, the enterprising college student put together a business plan, researched case law on promotional advertisements, and convinced several investors — wealthy clients he’d met while
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               working
              </u>
             </a>
             as a climbing guide — to front the cash.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             On March 28, 1996, he
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              mailed
             </a>
             15 Pepsi Points, along with a check for
             <strong>
              $700,008.50
             </strong>
             (including shipping), to Pepsi and politely asked for his jet.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Several weeks later, Leonard received a reply from Pepsi.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The company returned Leonard’s check, threw in some pity coupons, and made it clear that the jet in the commercial was purely “fanciful.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fmockup_letter.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             A mock-up of the response Leonard received from Pepsi corporate (legal proceedings, via Justia)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             By this point, Leonard had already sunk
             <strong>
              ~$4k
             </strong>
             into consulting with legal professionals and researching case law on deceptive advertising.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Instead of backing down, he secured an attorney and doubled down on his demand.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fpepsi_demand_letter.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             A mock-up of Leonard’s correspondence with Pepsi (legal proceedings, via Justia)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Leonard’s letter made the rounds at PepsiCo and eventually ended up in the hands of
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              BBDO New York
             </a>
             , the advertising firm Pepsi had retained to create the commercial.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A VP at the firm, Raymond E. McGovern Jr., seemed perplexed by Leonard’s persistence.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “I find it hard to believe that you are of the opinion that the Pepsi Stuff commercial really offers a new Harrier Jet,” he
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              wrote
             </a>
             back. “No reasonable person would agree with your analysis of the commercial.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             So, Leonard decided to go to battle for his fighter jet.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              A battle in the courts
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             With the help of counsel, Leonard filed suit, claiming that Pepsi’s ad had constituted as a binding offer, and that the company had breached contract by refusing to exchange 7m Pepsi Points for a Harrier jet.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A flood of news reports followed the filing — and Pepsi made no qualms about publicly sharing its thoughts on the matter.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             "Tens of millions of Americans, and people around the world, saw the spot, got the joke, and laughed," a PepsiCo spokesman
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              told
             </a>
             <em>
              CBS News
             </em>
             . "Mr. Leonard saw the spot, hired business advisers and lawyers, and decided to take legal action."
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             "I didn't want any publicity on this," Leonard
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              retorted
             </a>
             . "I'm not trying to make a statement. I'm not looking for a settlement. I just want a plane."
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In an interview with
             <em>
              The Associated Press
             </em>
             , he
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              reiterated
             </a>
             that he was “simply trying to take Pepsi up on an offer it made to the public.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fharrier_jet_takeoff.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             An AV-8B Harrier aircraft prepares for vertical takeoff near Catania, Italy. (Via Gisele Tellier/Getty Images)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             PepsiCo, the parent company of Pepsi beverages, was swift to counterattack.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The conglomerate responded with its own suit in New York, seeking to recoup
             <strong>
              $88,162
             </strong>
             in attorney’s fees and dismiss Leonard’s claims as frivolous without going to trial.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             As things often play out in America’s justice system, the case turned into a
             <strong>
              3-year-long
             </strong>
             procedural slog before making its way to
             <strong>
              Judge Kimba Wood
             </strong>
             of New York’s Southern District Court.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Ultimately, the case came down to whether
             <strong>
             </strong>
             Pepsi’s TV ad constituted a legally binding “offer.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             And on Aug. 5, 1999, Judge Wood
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <strong>
               ruled resoundingly
              </strong>
             </a>
             <strong>
              in Pepsi’s favor
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fpepsi_lawsuit_headlines.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Newspapers around the country followed Leonard’s saga (various news sources; 1999)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The decision came down to 3 key
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               points
              </u>
             </a>
             :
            </p>
            <ol style="font-size: 16px;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Advertisements are generally not considered offers in contract law:
              </strong>
              “Ads for the sale of goods (TV, radio, newspaper, newsletter)... are merely the
              <em>
               requests
              </em>
              to offer or negotiate” and an advertiser must accept an offer from a customer for it to be legally formed.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               The ad was obviously a joke:
              </strong>
              An “ordinary, reasonable person” would conclude that a soft drink company would
              <em>
               not
              </em>
              give away a fighter plane as part of a promotion.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               An enforceable contract requires both parties’ signatures:
              </strong>
              Under existing law, any contract for the sale of goods worth $500+ must be evidenced by writing; Pepsi did not sign anything.
             </li>
            </ol>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Leonard would not get his jet.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But as a Defense Department spokesman clarified, a fully demilitarized jet probably wouldn’t have been much fun, anyway.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “Even if the lad were able to get the plane from Pepsi, it would not be one he could fly,” the official
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              said
             </a>
             at a Pentagon briefing.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              The aftermath
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             After mounting an
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              unsuccessful appeal
             </a>
             in 2000, Leonard pursued his next adventure.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             He moved to Alaska, where he became the chief mountaineering ranger at Denali National Park. In recent years, he was promoted to the DC Bureau of the National Park Service.
            </p>
           </td>
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          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fpage_pepsi_catalog.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1mFDe2:Z-LRNjSGDFeBvAd1nfR27_BMoRbr7sY4ySwMXitAPVc" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Pages from Pepsi’s 1996 promotional catalog (via eBay)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Despite — or perhaps, thanks to — the controversial press, Pepsi Stuff was a massive success.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The company did not respond to requests to comment on the campaign’s impact. But in 1996 one Pepsi executive
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              called it
             </a>
             "by far the most successful promotion” the company had ever run.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             After Leonard’s lawsuit was filed, the Harrier jet commercial continued to air, but with some minor tweaks to drive home the joke.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The points for the jet were increased from 7m to 700m, and 2 words were tacked onto the closing text: “just kidding.”
            </p>
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