Pepsico. Leonard v. Pepsico. Brief Fact Summary. PepsiCo (Defendant), advertised Pepsi related paraphernalia, which one could obtain by getting “Pepsi points” by drinking Pepsi. The commercial featured a youth arriving at school in a Harrier Jet and said the Harrier Jet was 7,000,000 Pepsi points. Plaintiff tried to obtain the Harrier Jet ...
Mar 21, 2000 · When the teenager is shown in the jet, the ad prices it as 7 million points. Plaintiff-appellant John D.R. Leonard alleges that the ad was an offer, that he accepted the offer by tendering the equivalent of 7 million points, and that Pepsico has …
John D.R. LEONARD v. PEPSICO, INC. (August 5, 1999) 88 F. Supp 2d 116 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) OPINION & ORDER WOOD, J. Plaintiff brought this action seeking, among other things, specific performance of an alleged offer of a Harrier Jet, featured in a television advertisement for defendant's "Pepsi Stuff" promotion. Defendant has
Jul 14, 2021 · Between July and August of 1996, two lawsuits were brought forth: one by PepsiCo, the “declaratory judgment action” and the other by Leonard, the “Florida action.”. The Florida suit was transferred by US District Court Judge James Lawrence King for a lack of meaningful relationship to the controversy. Upon this transfer, the plaintiff ...
Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc. | |
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Judge(s) sitting | Kimba Wood |
Pepsico characterizes the use of the Harrier jet in the ad as a hyperbolic joke (“zany humor”), cites the ad's reference to offering details contained in the promotional catalog (which contains no Harrier fighter plane), and argues that no objective person would construe the ad as an offer for the Harrier jet.
A television commercial aired by Pepsico depicted a teenager gloating over various items of merchandise earned by Pepsi points, and culminated in the teenager arriving at high school in a Harrier Jet , a fighter aircraft of the United States Marine Corps.
Charles Ossola, New York, N.Y. (Arnold & Porter, Washington D.C., and Arent, Fox, Kitner, Plotkin & Kahn, New York, N.Y. on the brief) for Defendant-Appellee. In 1995, defendant-appellee Pepsico, Inc. conducted a promotion in which it offered merchandise in exchange for “points” earned by purchasing Pepsi Cola.
Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc., 88 F. Supp. 2d 116, ( S.D.N.Y. 1999), aff'd 210 F. 3d 88 ( 2d Cir. 2000), more widely known as the Pepsi Points Case, is a contracts case tried in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1999, in which the plaintiff, John Leonard, sued PepsiCo, Inc. in an effort to enforce an " offer " to redeem 7,000,000 Pepsi Points for an AV-8 Harrier II jump jet (valued at $33.8 million at the time) which PepsiCo had shown in a portion of a televised commercial that PepsiCo argued was intended to be humorous.
The plaintiff did not collect 7,000,000 Pepsi Points through the purchase of Pepsi products, but instead sent a certified check for $700,008.50 as permitted by the contest rules. Leonard had 15 existing points, paid $0.10 a point for the remaining 6,999,985 points, and a $10 shipping and handling fee.
The case was originally brought in Florida, but eventually heard in New York. The defendant, Pepsi, moved for summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. Among other claims made, Leonard claimed that a federal judge was incapable of deciding on the matter, and that instead the decision had to be made by a jury consisting ...
Since Pepsi never cashed the check, a case for fraud held no water; additionally, while the ad was alleged to have been a breach of contract, the ad was deemed to be humorous and did not legally constitute an offer under the Restatement (Second) of Contracts. Pepsi continued to air the commercial, but it updated the cost of the Harrier Jet to 700 million Pepsi Points and added a clarifying "Just Kidding" disclaimer. The White House stated that the Harrier Jet would not be sold to civilians without "demilitarization", which, in the case of the Harrier, would have included stripping it of its ability to land and take off vertically.
Pepsico characterizes the use of the Harrier jet in the ad as a hyperbolic joke ("zany humor"), cites the ad's reference to offering details contained in the promotional catalog (which contains no Harrier fighter plane), and argues that no objective person would construe the ad as an offer for the Harrier jet.
A television commercial aired by Pepsico depicted a teenager gloating over various items of merchandise earned by Pepsi points, and culminated in the teenager arriving at high school in a Harrier Jet , a fighter aircraft of the United States Marine Corps.