“Took a Joke to Court” – Pepsi Lawsuit Ends After 30 Years

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:00)
A man sues Pepsi 30 years ago, because Pepsi did this campaign. If you can't even pull up the campaign when they did this back in the days, because you guys showed me this video yesterday, they do this thing about, hey, we're gonna give a fighter jet. And so this one guy decides to go and do every single thing required to win this thing. And then all of a sudden, I don't know what page the Pepsi story's on, oh, there it is, I found it. Man who sued Pepsi over fighter jets finally gets his reward 30 years later. This is the original commercial, by the way, from October 30, 1995 Watch this, go ahead.
Oh my God, this is how commercial sounded. Listen to the audio.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
Hear the audio?

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:41)
That is terrible. Can we get past the six seconds? Yeah, go a little bit. All right, let's see it.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:57)
Introducing the new Pepsi Stuff Catalog. Yeah.
Now, the more Pepsi you drink, the more great stuff you're going to get. Sure beats the boss.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:14)
So they put this saying, if you get 7 million points, you're going to get a fighter jet, and this one kid gets it done.
And they never thought it was going to happen, so they never gave him the jet. What are you going to do? Deliver the jet to the guy's house? Can you imagine how crazy this campaign was?

**SPEAKER_6** (1:29)
What if he's a Middle Eastern guy?

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:30)
Pepsi's like, holy shit. Three decades later, after suing Pepsi for refusing to give him a fighter jet, John Leonard, pull up his picture. I actually want to see what this man looks like before and after, what he looked like as a kid. Finally got a reward that may be even better, according to a post at Super Car Blondie. Leonard became the center of all advertising, most famous legal battles after taking the 1996 Pepsi commercial at face value. The ad promoting the company's Pepsi Points royalty program jokingly claimed customers could redeem 7 million points for a military Harrier jet. Rather than laughing it off, the Seattle College student raised enough money to buy the required points and submitted a claim for the aircraft. Pepsi rejected it, insisting the jet was never a real price. The article says that the case went to court where a judge ruled that no reasonable person would believe Pepsi was seriously offering a fighter jet in a soft drink promotion. Although Leonard lost the lawsuit, the bizarre dispute became legendary and was later chronicled.
How do you pronounce this word?

**Adam** (2:34)
Chronicled, sir?

**Patrick Bet-David** (2:35)
Chronicled in the Netflix documentary, I got you, every time. Where's my jet? Now nearly 30 years later, Frontier Airlines gave this story a happy ending as part of a Super Bowl campaign called The Big Redemption. The airline converted Leonard's original 7 million Pepsi points into 7 million Frontier miles, effectively giving him free flights for life. The airline even featured Leonard in a tongue-in-cheek commercial, handing him the keys to an Airbus A320neo as a nod to the decades-old saga. Now in his 50s, with a wife and children, Leonard joked that unlimited airline miles are far more practical than owning a military jet. After waiting three decades, he never got the hairier, but he may have received an even better price. Tom?

**Tom** (3:21)
So marketing has consequences.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:24)
And I think if you're going to do this, you know, Sam, this is him as a kid, a college student, isn't that great? And by the way, can we see him today?
Can we seem to what did he do? What business did he get into for a guy to be this resourceful? I hope this guy became like super successful. If he used his ability to get those 7 million points, your ability to be resourceful is off the charts. This is him now.

**Adam** (3:48)
That's so funny. Looking good, buddy.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:49)
Is there a video? Can we hear how he speaks? I actually wanted to hear how he speaks.

**Tom** (3:52)
I'd laugh if he became like a consumer protection attorney.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:57)
I actually wanted, so this is the commercial. They're not showing Pepsi. This is Frontier Airlines.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:01)
They ran a promotion. Collect enough points and you could trade them for a jet.
One man tried to claim it, but the courts ruled it was a joke, and the plane never came.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:13)
Leonard's case was dismissed.

**Patrick Bet-David** (4:53)
By the way, Frontier's marketing team should get a fricking raise.

**Adam** (4:57)
Oh yeah. Didn't get a jet. This is 7 million.