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2023-04-21 19:11:52In 1992, Pepsi launched a marketing campaign in the Philippines that promised a grand prize of one million pesos to the lucky winner who found the number "349" under the bottle cap. Many people across the country who were living in poverty saw this as an opportunity to change their lives. They celebrated, believing they had won the prize, and even went to the Pepsi factory to claim it. The situation turned chaotic, and the police had to intervene.
However, the executives at Pepsi were not prepared for the number of people who had won. If they paid everyone who had the winning bottle cap, it would cost them over $30 billion US dollars and would bankrupt the company. As a result, they announced that the winning number was a mistake, but as a goodwill gesture, they offered everyone with a "349" bottle cap 500 pesos, equivalent to about $18. This was a significant disappointment for the winners who had believed they would win $50,000.
The situation led to riots, and people started throwing Molotov cocktails into the windows of the Pepsi factory and bombing trucks. The riots left many people injured, and five people lost their lives. A group of winners formed the Coalition 349 and sued Pepsi, but the company only had to pay a fine of 150,000 pesos, which was insignificant to them. Many people saw this as a corporation giving false hope to people in poverty, only to take it away.
There were also reports that Pepsi hired mercenaries to bomb their trucks and make it seem like the Coalition 349 had done it. Pepsi denies these allegations, but the incident remains a dark part of their history.
This was not the only time Pepsi faced trouble over a contest. In 1996, they started a campaign where people could earn points by purchasing Pepsi products and win prizes from the "Pepsi Stuff Catalog." In a commercial, they claimed that for 7 million points, a person could win a Harrier Jet. A business student named John Leonard realized that he could buy 7 million Pepsi points for $700,000 and sued the company for false advertising when they failed to send him the jet. Pepsi won the case, and they changed their commercial to include "just kidding" at the end.
Despite their controversies, Pepsi also had one of the greatest marketing campaigns ever with the Cola Wars against Coca-Cola. The rivalry between the two companies was intense, and both went to great lengths to win over customers. The Cola Wars eventually died down, but the competition between the two companies remains strong to this day.