In 1996 a customer mailed PepsiCo’s rewards fulfillment house an order form, fifteen Pepsi Points and a check for $700,008.50, after a TV commercial ended with a teenager landing a Harrier jet at school beside the words “HARRIER FIGHTER 7,000,000 PEPSI POINTS.” The fulfillment house returned the check, saying the jet in the commercial was “fanciful and is simply included to create a humorous and entertaining ad.” In August 1999 a federal court in New York granted PepsiCo summary judgment, saying the commercial was not an offer and that “no objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier Jet.” In April 2000 the Second Circuit affirmed “for substantially the reasons stated” in the district court’s opinion.
Sources
– Opinion and order granting summary judgment, 88 F. Supp. 2d 116 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 5, 1999):
– Second Circuit opinion affirming, 210 F.3d 88 (2d Cir. Apr. 17, 2000, per curiam):
Narration is an AI voice. Pictures are AI-assisted illustrations and our own text cards; no real person, product photo, logo or packaging is shown. The jet is a generic drawing, not the aircraft in the commercial.
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