The 90s Pepsi Contest That Turned Deadly
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ธ.ค. 2020
- In the 1990s, a Pepsi marketing stunt promised soda drinkers in the Philippines a chance at getting rich. But an error in the campaign led thousands of people to think they had won-triggering rioting, lawsuits and even deaths.
For more about the Pepsi prize fiasco, read Jeff Maysh's full story in Bloomberg Businessweek: www.bloomberg.com/news/featur...
#Storylines #BloombergBusinessweek #Pepsi
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For more about the Pepsi prize fiasco, read Jeff Maysh's full story in Bloomberg Businessweek: www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-08-04/the-inside-story-of-pepsi-s-philippines-bottle-contest-fiasco
so, this was just a recap- no action was doneto help the people and no checks were made to see if and when they were compensated
It isn't so shocking that newspapers from the areas with dead family would claim Pepsi bombed it's own workers, when you consider that the corporation financed the assassination of Union Leaders in South/Central America around this same timeline. We are all mere "economic inputs" to the Corporatocracy, they DGAF about the public or their workers, just the Filthy Lucre, not so shocking...
Great story for MBAs studying 'social corporate responsibility' - a lesson of potential exploitation of the poor and how an unintentional third party could cause a huge scandal; such as the release of the wrong number, could cause long-lasting damage to a company and a huge PR nightmare and costly damage control.
Perhaps, Pepsi, in its bid to compete against Coke did not fully see the gravity of their contest. And ultimately, it could show how a large corporation like Pepsi could be left holding the bag to a nation for possible life-crippling damages; including inciting and provoking (unintentionally) loss of life and wide-spread civil unrest.
To what extent would Pepsi be responsible for covering the damages; would Pepsi be responsible if a third-party mistakenly released the wrong number? Would it be to Pepsi's advantage to fight the case while distancing itself from any wrong-doing? How would the public react to Pepsi's fleeing responsibility?
And would it ultimately cause Pepsi to lose millions in sales if it avoided restitution? Would it have been better for Pepsi to pay the damages to the family directly affected by the Rioting and Bombings? And could Pepsi have made better restitution in its apology that would have been seen as honest and appreciated?
It is clear that Pepsi lost millions in sales after the incident, but it was it reputation that was damaged most of all.
And for the people who were violated by Pepsi's promise to pay for the winning caps; they (the people) are most likely still feeling the pain of disillusionment by having been a part of the problem; they most certainly are still feeling the pain and loss from Pepsi... some damages go far beyond the physical -- some mental anguish goes on for life.
Perhaps you could do a report on Pepsi's involvement in encouraging the CIA to support Pinochet's coup in Chile.
well that was interesting
I had one of those 349 bottle caps. I was a kid back then, the prize on the cap was Php100,000. My parents told me to just sell my 349 bottle cap to scalpers that were capitalizing on the fiasco because they said that waiting for a resolution or for the 100K prize will get me nowhere. I took my parents advice and sold my winning 349 bottle cap for just Php10,000 and that very day, me and my mom went to the store, bought a bunch of Ninja Turtle toys, a Karaoke stereo and groceries . The remaining cash I gave to my mom. I was a very happy kid. lol
Smart parents you got they knew the writing on the wall and capitalized
Sure u did lol
@@wakkythug yeah man. I was born before you were.
gotta say you are one lucky guy to have such a smart parents
@@basiccoder2166 Yeah, you can say that. I feel bad for my neighbors though. They really held on to their 349 caps hoping that they can still cash in, some even have like 3 or more 349 caps with 1 million Pesos. They joined the class action lawsuit, but nothing really happened with it. Pepsi really messed up big time.
"$68,000 doesn't sound like a lot now..." ERM EXCUSE ME
Sounds life changing to me
$68,000 can only buy 3 cars
@@jensenraylight8011 True, but what's with a single parent with 2 kids, out of the job because of Covid - how would they feel? I doubt they would buy three cars.
@@JTScott1988 are you young or in college?
@@jensenraylight8011 3 cars? You can barely buy 1 car for $68K.
It really isn't a lot of money anymore. Heck, a million dollars isn't a lot of money anymore. My house is worth $1.6M and it's a smallish bog standard 3 bedroom that just happens to be in a nice neighbourhood.
I live in Manila and at this day and age, $68,000 / PHP1M is STILL a phenomenal amount of money.
1m php is now just 20.8k usd haha but yeah still substantial for us Pinoys
@@marion817 Even $21K is still a ton of money for most us Americans too, tbh. That's an entire down payment on a property, or a brand new car.
@@miguelzavaleta1911 yes, but it's not an insane amount. the majority of filipinos would be set for life with that much, and $68K would be easily enough for a whole family to live off for their entire lives back in the mid-90s
@@iansteelmatheson still an insane amount to me, living on minimum wage in France, something around 1200$ per month. That represents almost two years of work... I would go crazy if I earned only 500$ !!
@@marion817 17k
for someone like me who was just a baby in the 90's, its a shock and also an aha moment as to why Pepsi doesn't really do well in PH.
Pr0nhub?
Nvm. Philippines.
Power of Hydrogen?
Truuuue! Pepsi is quite pitiful here in the Philippines.
Frick Pepsi all my homies hate Pepsi
I remember this, I was a kid then but I still recall it vividly. It was in the news. Pepsi still hasn't recovered up to now, reputation wise. Coke dominates the market in no small part because of this debacle in the 90s.
same with the Harrier Jet that Pepsi never came through with on their promises.
and Pepsi tastes bad so coke is superior.
I still like pepsi better than coke.
@@alcoholic2412 well your name probably speaks volumes in relation to your taste. ✌💩
@@colinpendleton3754 👅💩
This sounds like a far better back story to the Fallout games.
lol
I was thinking the same thing. They are digging in trash cans for caps? Hell I did that a lot in the capital wasteland.
this hits deep feels
Checkout Sunset Sasparilla in New Vegas. Not exactly the same thing, but it's definitely in the same vein.
@@Ghost00117 you mean the dude who killed like 12 people for the caps?
My dad worked for Pepsi during that time, people would protest in front of the factories and offices. They even covered the Pepsi logo of their cars to avoid hate from people
I never even knew about this, and I live in the Philippines for sakes.
@Noypi Anakin hahaha your funny...
@Noypi Anakin Ahahaha pota
matagal nayan mura pa mga softdrinks nung panahon nayan
it was so long ago. i got to know about it as an adult haha
Now you know
I was not aware of this battle in the cola war. I'm surprised PepsiCo wasn't banned in the Philippines.
Capitalism trumps morals
It wasn't banned but local consumers boycotted Pepsi and favored Coca-Cola. This makes the reason why that until now, Coca-Cola's sale is still higher than Pepsi.
It was huge... constant tv commercials, celebrity endorsements, and advertising everywhere... it was rediculous, and culminated when Michael Jackson caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial... which led to his downfall because he became addicted to pain medication after that
It's a very interesting period of pop culture.. I think there might even be a documentary about it 🤔
Because until now, PH still has barely consumer protection laws or civil suits. It's ridiculous
Actually PepsiCo drinks are even sold in any of their restaurants that are mainly KFC and Pizza Hut. They have to serve Coke because of the damages and every time they tried to put their drinks in the dispensers customers wouldn’t enter their stores.
pepsi never bounced back from this. coke is no. 1 in the Philippines. a monopoloy, even.
even RC cola is more popular here in the Philippines.
I wondered about that because I've always preferred Pepsi taste-wise. I was just wasn't aware of that incident until now. I completely understand why Coke would be no 1
@@itsourtubenow9729 damn, and RC cola tastes like bread water
@@missuntitledblog Same. I prefer Pepsi because of it's sweet and less acidic taste. Too bad
This is so interesting!
In the Philippines, there are what are called "sari-sari store" (sort of like a smaller-scale convenience store/bodega) and "carinderia" (very small-scale, very cheap diner). In the 90's, just about every one of these had their store signage 'sponsored' by Pepsi and Coca Cola. So much so, that if you were looking for one in an unfamiliar place, you'd try to look for the Pepsi and Coke logos first. That's still the case to some extent.
When the reporter said sari-sari my first thought was so that's what they call a convenience store!
Karamihan sa tindahan kong nadadaanan may Coke signage.
In the USA, glass bottles were only sold in vending machines in the 90's...MAYBE, a "country store", but glass bottles were hard to come by...We don't even remember this contest!
@@brentfarvors192 Bro, this contest was in the Philippines.
@@va960 It you PAYED ATTENTION ( You sound like a TRUE American; I'm PROUD to call you my countryman!!!); You will hear him say they ran the same promo in the USA 1:45...
I remember this “349” fiasco as a kid growing up in the Philippines. I had a neighbor who threw parties (got into more debt) after securing one of those 349 caps. The lesson of “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” has stayed with me until this day.
Best Ad Campaign ever: COKE Adds Life, PEPSI Adds Lie
awful
@@andrewt013 It should be PEPSI Ads lie.
Soda ADDING life. 😂
Kutis Pwet there Coca Cola Advert department you just got a very brilliant idea for your next advertisement
So pepsi get the f out?
And it's still ridiculous there's barely any Consumer Protection laws in the Philippines to this day.
its more fun in the philippines
There are, nobody is complaining. What is to a Filipino if their change came out 50 cents shorter than what is billed?
@@axelpatrickb.pingol3228 hey atleast I got compensation though a candy
@@alezacrespublik6655 trueeee hahahaha
I think their government still needs work, but they still are doing better now that they escaped much of the colonialism. Same with Indonesia. Not perfect, as most countries aren't. But I'm proud to see the country where a few of my ancestors lived, to have gotten so far so fast.
Four years later, they ended up back in court for not paying up the Harrier jet they’d promised for a million Pepsi points. Who was running their promotions department?!
Maybe some Coke guy were sabotaging Pepsi
Cokei was. !! A jet yea right
I can't even remember when was the last time I saw a pepsi bottle in a local store
do you live in the philippines?
Yup. I live in a rural place here in the Philippines. But never saw this in our rural stores. It was either coke, royal or sprite.....and RC now...
I just noticed that Jollibees in PH don't serve Pepsi, but they sure do in the US! 😂
I rarely see the brand now, i live in the rural philippines
Lays is also pespsi company's product.
we need a netflix doc for this
Yeah this story plus other corporate sweepstakes scandals would be a really cool docuseries
get a life
@@thattannerguy856 you should check out Dirty Money on Netflix. It features a number of big corporate scandals and controversial businesspeople
@@holdencawffle626 Find some manners.
Yes, I want to know if there were any real million dollar winners.
That was brilliant, fascinating and a well put together 13-minute documentary. Kudos! That's the stuff I come to TH-cam for.
How, he did not explain how the competition worked, did not say if the lawsuit was ever successful... utter tripe and meaningless without this key information
My mom was one of the persons who got these numbers. She and my grandma always tell me this story when I was little.
She said when she went to claim the price, other people showed up as well. That’s when they found out. Needless to say she went home pissed.
Rarely. Even me, after I moved out. I’d either drink tons of water, some Coca Cola, or juice (since I also stopped drinking liquor few months ago)
Hey guys animes dog
My mother still had her winning cap.
Asian things
Welp, just another relics from such a rather fucked up business promo that was infamous with Pepsi.
If only that number is the real deal, even i would smile, oh dear 😔
It's probably worth $$$, by now! Try calling Coke, and see if they are interested...! "The famous bottle cap, that clenched the Philippine market" lol Might be too late; The executive is probably retired, by now; Perfect retirement gift!
@@vrataski1621 Probably a collectors item, by now! Call Rick Harrison! "I'll give you a stick of gum, and this bottle cap, but I'm taking all the risk here..."
wag na kayong umasa boy.
i dont know but 68k usd still sounds like a lot to me
In 2020, 1 million pesos is about 20 thousand dollar. 1 USD - 48 PHP
@@johnpaulreyes1706 more like $20k, $20,833 to be exact
@@johnpaulreyes1706 better check your math there bud
@@squarehead6452 yes. Should be 20thousand dollar. Not 20 million.
its a massive amount especially for someone living in the philippines. you can buy a brand new car with that
Fallout new vegas: sunset sasperilla.
Philipine: pepsi
Lol
patrolling the mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
Here in the Philippines, a lot people live in very bad poverty so unlike in richer countries, the people here are more desperate and deprived not having opportunities to get jobs and those that do live on a very small salary. This is why it becomes so violent when a marketing scheme like this is introduced to desperate people who can't find a way out of their unfortunate circumstance.
I remember this as the 349 scandal, we had tons of those bottlecaps and actually won a bunch of times
I think this could be an excellent movie script.
Should I adapted this story? Need the approval in order to produce that film!
Sponsored by Coke
But pepsi would let anyone destroy their reputation so easily
Starring Leonardo Dicaprio
@@mizukienriquez3197 nah lets use a Filipino as a main lead let Leo be a major character or side character
Great story. I had no idea about this. Thanks for sharing.
Me either. I’m sure Pepsi has worked hard to keep it that way
@@MarieAntoinetteandherlittlesis They have tried so hard that it’s very embarrassing for them that in the Philippines, KFC and Pizza Hut have to sell Coca-Cola’s drinks and both brands had to distance themselves by not mentioning any ownership to PepsiCo in any advertising.
There was also the time Pepsi offered a trip to space as a prize. Never paid up.
Why they do this?
And a Harrier jet.
Wtf and there were GROWN UP HUMANS who believed in this?
@@sofiab.9129 Yeah, grown up humans believe in a lot of silly things.
@@kevindavis8762 and they never honoured the guy who won the prize too.
As a kid in the 90's in Canada, I remember Pepsi Pop Culture. It had a "look under the cap" thing and you matched words to see if you won, but you could also win instantly. So one time I look under the cap, and it says "JACKPOT". So I freak out and call their 1-800 number and the person just tells me, "Oh that's French for...". I got another one that said JACKPOT too and I called and got somebody else and that's what they said too. They said it meant nothing. And as a stupid 12 year old, I believed them and didn't pursue it.
so basically you lost two lucky caps?
He said $68,000 don't sound like a lot of money now... Well shoot maybe I'm just broke but yeah it sounds kinda like a lot to me lol
His exchange rate is way off. 1 000 000 Philippine Pesos today is worth around 20 000 USD
@@NR63917 It's possible it was in the '90s, or that they adjusted for inflation. They didn't make it clear. I think the main point was that it was a life changing amount for people with nothing, and more money than Pepsi would be willing to pay over a mistake.
I think he means 6k to 8k not 68k.
@@NR63917 well shoot either way it's not a terribly small amount of money. Not enough to go THAT crazy but I'd still like it lol
He was talking about it in comparion to 1,000,000$ and explained that with their monthly income the 68,000$ would be equal to 680 months of pay for them.. So he is just explaing that it sound allot less than a million but to them is equal to about a million.
Oh wow! The Simpsons weren't lying about the Cola Wars they referenced.
The creators and writers of the Simpsons are really spot on with cultural references! This being one of them :-)
@@blueblue8852 Except they haven't, sheep.
@Havana D'Aurcy Yes, they have
The Simpsons are never wrong
Pepsi almost killed Michael jackson from a bad stage misshaps.
True. That damaged his life forever
😄
Also that kendall jenner ad
You're right! Wth are they doing over there...
Then Sony actually killed him...
wow could you imagine getting legal representation even for 500pesos? That's like 6 US bucks in the 90s!
Pepsi never learns, they roll out these rediculous "contests" and it causes nothing but problems? Remember the "jet" scandal back in 1998?
They also had a very foolish one in the '80s where you would win by spelling your legal surname. The rare caps were vowels. Every Ng in America tried to claim their prize and of course they didn't get paid either.
Wow - Corporations are even MORE evil than I already knew💔💔💔💔
No shortages of dumb poor people to take advantage of, that's the real problem no one wants to discuss.
Why would anyone think it wasnt a joke?
@@Ceruleanst "We reserve the right not to pay for anything we or our subsidiaries or employees or associates didn't think of, and anything else we decide isn't really our fault. GOTCHA."
Fascinating story, well told by great journalists
I bet pepsi never apologized to the victims families. They should have gave the money to the victims.
im filipino and this is why pepsi isn't that big in the philippines.
@@lillyie I have a random question for you. My dad sends money to a women in the Philippines, his "girlfriend". I feel like she uses him and she's always asking for money. How far does 800 American dollars go? How far does 50 American dollars go? And how often do phillipine women contact American men for money? My dad is on a fixed income, he neglects his own bills, goes without medication and food at times to send her money. I'm not trying to be rude I'm just looking for an opinion from someone that lives in the area.
@@angelbrumfield6134 if I may butt in, as someone who lives here in Manila, I can say he's being exploited by some ppl here. As the pandemic hit, the cases of filipina opting for 'sugar-daddy' has risen. Sure 50 dollars can get you a week here, 800 is quite a lot as it can pay the rent for almost half a year. Please tell your father not to delve in too much with it, as there are cases of foreigners being scammed by their supposed 'friends.'
@@mattsprojects2047 thank you for commenting. I figured he was sending more money than she needed and she is taking advantage of my dad. I've tried to talk to him about it but he is head strong and I dont want him to think I'm trying to take his independence. My mom died 2 years ago and I know hes lonely, she does spend a lot of time on video chat with him and in that way she is bringing some joy to his life.
@@Addehaddy Thank you for responding I really didn't have anyone to ask and your comment helps me better understand things.
In the video game Fallout New Vegas, there is a mission to collect special caps from a drink prominent in that game, which featured a star under the crown. The more you find, the more NPCs will hunt you down for those special caps. Incidentally, the player does get snubbed for not having enough when they reach the bottling plant, regardless of actual held number.
I saw this video recommended, and wondered how much of an influence it might have been for Obsidian at the time.
That's exactly what I thought of too.. XD
Ah yes atleast we got pew-pew and a moral lesson on a holotape lol
But yeah, i encountered 2 wastelanders near nipton fighting for the necklace of sarsaparilla bottle star caps and its somehow related to that incident
Fantastic reporting. Totally blew me away, I'd never heard of this from anyone.
I had 349 caps. I was a kid. My dad worked for Pepsi. It also destroyed our business.
lol F bro
How? Sounds like an interesting history
I am sorry that happened to you and your family
I remember this. My father won also .
That time was the downfall of Pepsi in the Philippines after that scam.
I'm reminded of the soda bottle from "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and the way it wreaked havoc on the tribe... with one object, a bottle.
That is one of my very fav.socail experiment movies loooove it.
Thank you for reminding me of this great movie! Should be required viewing for any sort of "education".
Ha! That was on TV tonight!
I remember this. I never understood how Pepsi was so carless in this consumer game. Especially when they did it here in the US first. Here they made sure there were only 10 winning bottle caps made. They didn't do a random bottlecap number drawing for winners. Here they knew how many winners there would be at every amount, even the 5 dollar winners. In the Philippines they just let it go crazy.
This. The amount of pure stupidty is mind boggling!
@@arasb3258 Yeah. Almost like it was done intentionally. Trans-national Mega-corps selling carbonated corn syrup water to the tune of Trillions a year might not actually be stupid. Evil yes, but maybe not stupid.
@@arasb3258 Just to finish my rant, are they TRYING to fill up the rivers and oceans with plastic trash??!!! WTF.
It's called exploitation, I doubt they even cared about paying out.
@@cherylyates9845 coke does it woth their plastic bottles
Coke executive: "I know how we can beat Pepsi here... 349"
Execute order 349. Dew it!
349 cans of Coke :)
12:09 They paid millions on lawyers to fight the case 😂not to the families
so i guess i shouldn't be surprised they would rather defend their mistakes than put any effort in even trying to follow through with broken promises.
@@dirtysocks_blackcoffee9928 400 million is a lot more than they paid their lawyers. It should have never gone to courts and instead they should have settled.
if only they paid them that amount of money split to each victim, there would be no cases
@@--.._ Nope, given that there were hundreds of thousands of winners that wouldn't have solved anything. It would've taken billions of Dollars to pay even close to the promised amount, and as was said in the video, Pepsi did make an offer to pay at least something - which was refused.
@@BlueBockser yes, if there were really about 600k bottle caps with 349, multiply that by $68,000 = 40.8 Billion US dollars. that's 76 billion in today's money, which is 3x what Pepsico is worth right now
Idk why watching this made my "second hand embarrassment anxiety" go 📈📈📈
Being second hand embarrassed for a global brand that accumulates more money in a second than your entire family tree will make in 6 generations is borderline concerning and I hope you seek therapy 🙏
@@Cyph3rX you are the one who needs therapy with a name like that creep
@@Cyph3rX i feel second hand emberessmant for the stupid people going crazy because they think Pepsi will gift them money.
@@Cyph3rX With a name like that, you’re the one who needs therapy. I hate dogs completely, but I know they don’t deserve to get abused in any way.
@@asteriusblack I'm feeling very cyber bullied by that assault on my creativity. Might have to have my mom call customer service on you 🤔
This is the real life equivalent to “Scott’s Tots”
Love your comment 🤣
Only true fans would know🎯
"I've made some empty promises in my life, but hands down, that was the most generous."
HEY MR SCOTT, WHATCHA GONNA DOOO
I can only imagine how Coca Cola guys must have felt.
Coca Cola : *stifled giggling intensifies*
they won the lottery
they basically won big without doing anything lol
Happy from how this turned out.
They are still laughing now. It has been more than 20 years and both KFC and Pizza Hut have no choice but to serve Coke drinks in their restaurants and have no mention of them being owned by PepsiCo.
My father also got the crown with the 349 number. He tried to fight for it. But he failed. Until his untimely demise last year, I know he had that number fever in his head. 😌
People no longer patronize their product, maybe some, but Coca Cola is still the leading soda.
I remember the Pepsi Fighter Jet giveaway....WTF were they thinking
That no one would win
@@hillaryclinton2415 except one guy got enough Pepsi points and they did not give him the jet
Sheesh Pepsi! 🤦♂️🤦♀️
Ive always heard about this story from my parents, it was not that long ago but it still boggles my mind that it happened
2:16 "68 thousands dollars doesn't sound like a lot now..."
Damn I'm really poor.
no, you're just normal
This is sad story, while PepsiCo earned $10million-14million a month, they can't give out a few thousand "Winner" $68000 due their own error.
How is the company not banned from country ?
Pepsi is the least liked brand over here. There's a local brand called RC cola that beats pepsi even.
The video said “600,000 winning bottle caps”. $68,000US x 600,000 = $40,800,000,000. That’s 40 billion dollars.
Even if it was 100,000 bottle caps that’s 6,800,000,000. 6.8 billion dollars.
In 2005 Pepsi’s net worth was 90 billion. So could they pay it? Possibly. On the lower end of 100,000 bottle caps they would eat the loss of an entire’s year’s worth of income (not profit, income). On the higher end of 600,000 bottle caps they would eat the loss of about 5-6 years of income.
Thomas Rovnak broke it down with:
Last paragraph for a TLDR:
If you use the currency exchange from 1992 it would be about 40k per cap. As mentioned in the video 600k were printed and no clear knowledge of the amount found but its commonly predicted to be over 200k. Using the safe 200k number and the conversion rate would be 8 BILLION USD dollars. The oldest 10-K I can find is 1995 (company's total yearly summary required by US GAAP which you can see at SEC.gov). In 1995 Pepsi reports that in 1992 they generated 21.97 Billion in sales however only reported 2.3 Billion in profits. This is due to shipping, employee costs, buying raw materials, rent, utilities, maintenance, and anything related to the such. In the end after taxes, pensions, and such but BEFORE corporate dividends they had a net income of 374 MILLION nowhere near the 8 BILLION payout
So inorder to make a net profit of 0 and pay out like you said they would had to pay 1.87 USD less than 2 bucks per cap which is absolutely nothing. Pepsi would have gone bankrupt and coke cola would had have a clear monopoly in the world if they had to pay anywhere more that even $10 usd for this error. This would cost thousands of jobs across the world and other negative effects.
TLDR: Pepsi had a Net income of 374 Million in 1992. Upwards of 8 Billion in claimed winnings due to the error. If paid out to 200k winners for their whole net income then each cap would receive less than 2 dollars. Anything significantly more would cause bankruptcy.
Great piece. I have a terminal for many years now and this is the first truly great investigative journalism I've seen from you guys
Pepsi never recovered from the 349 number fever fiasco. They hold about 10-20% of the Philippine soda market.
Most say it was the work of Coke itself after seeing some of their sales being taken away by Pepsi. Also, coke switched from funky into family oriented advertising in 90s Philippines in response to the events.
That was fascinating. Thanks for the story
Netflix:write this down write this down...
Meet unlucky winners. Interesting choice of word play.
Wow that probably explains why Coke dominates the market here, I barely see any Pepsi in our convenient stores.
That's why Pepsi had been despised while I was growing up. I just heard this 349 from my mother. Until now, Pepsi is not so popular as Coke in the Philippines.
In my first job in 1969, I worked as a grocery store clerk & gas station attendant in Pennsylvania 10 hours a day, including week ends for $20.00 a week.
pepsi also never gave that guy a Harrier jump jet after he got the required points in the 90s what a joke company
Pepsi should no longer exist.
Pepsi is an off-brand coca cola
@@capnsteele3365 You aren't wrong. Pepsi was founded by former Coca-Cola employees...
Was that pepsi Marlboro or that pudding company that didn't pay the harrier jump jet
@@sam_s_ capitalism should no longer exist*
didnt pepsi falsely advertise the fighter jet plane?
Yes and a guy collected all the points to win it and took PepsiCo to court because they said it was a joke.
I was there when this happened!!! Thanks for the video. It brought it back to life for me.
Waiter : “I’m sorry but we’ve got only Pepsi Cola”
Customers : *burn the restaurant*
Hahaha
Its called "pipC"
when a company gets so big they lose their souls, and start thinking that they can do what ever they want!.
Companies don't have to be that big to lose their soul.
if they only put Philippines in the title this would have much more views
and put a PH flag on the thumbnail
That's not the main point and purpose of this video :/
And much more 'wHoS a FiLiPiNo hERe GiVe LiEk' comments
@@unitedastronomer fax ✅✅
It would
I'm from the Philippines. I had no idea about this. Thanks for sharing.
We got those 1M caps too but end up just tossing them away and eventually switched to Coca-cola. There is also a Pepsi factory in our town. I remember news about people queuing the day after the announcement yet thankfully there was no riot.
Pepsi did everything possible expect paying that they owned lol
Exactly. Bullshit.
I honestly don't think that would have been possible.
They printed SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND WINNING BOTTLE CAPS. Let's say that all the winning bottle caps were worth a million dollars; the payout would be $600,000,000,000 (600 billion)
@@angryhobo212 Of course it wouldn't be possible. But I'm interested in what they COULD afford.
Owned or owed?
Last paragraph for a TLDR:
If you use the currency exchange from 1992 it would be about 40k per cap. As mentioned in the video 600k were printed and no clear knowledge of the amount found but its commonly predicted to be over 200k. Using the safe 200k number and the conversion rate would be 8 BILLION USD dollars. The oldest 10-K I can find is 1995 (company's total yearly summary required by US GAAP which you can see at SEC.gov). In 1995 Pepsi reports that in 1992 they generated 21.97 Billion in sales however only reported 2.3 Billion in profits. This is due to shipping, employee costs, buying raw materials, rent, utilities, maintenance, and anything related to the such. In the end after taxes, pensions, and such but BEFORE corporate dividends they had a net income of 374 MILLION nowhere near the 8 BILLION payout
So inorder to make a net profit of 0 and pay out like you said they would had to pay 1.87 USD less than 2 bucks per cap which is absolutely nothing. Pepsi would have gone bankrupt and coke cola would had have a clear monopoly in the world if they had to pay anywhere more that even $10 usd for this error. This would cost thousands of jobs across the world and other negative effects.
TLDR: Pepsi had a Net income of 374 Million in 1992. Upwards of 8 Billion in claimed winnings due to the error. If paid out to 200k winners for their whole net income then each cap would receive less than 2 dollars. Anything significantly more would cause bankrupcy.
Unless I just missed it, this video doesn't seems to explain the most important part of this story... was the announcement of the 349 winning number on the TV news a mistake made by the news station, or a mistake made by Pepsi? I.e. did Pepsi actually tell them to announce 349, or did the news station screw up and announce the wrong number?
From what I’ve seen on posts they said the computer made the mistake.
Neat story! Thanks for uploading!
coke did something like that in Kenya
I remember this thing. My mother was running a sari-sari store and there is a lot of caps having 349..
It was a great story with so many lessons... Thanks for sharing
I grew up on Pepsi. My girlfriend years ago insisted on Coke. She was right. Pepsi tastes watered down to me now.
IMO Pepsi taste too "sweet". Coke has a unique undertone that balances out the sweetness a bit. Some of my friends describe it as a sort of "bitterness" or "pepperiness". IMO Coke tastes better too.
Also, Pepsi smells like Aceite de Manzanilla for me
When I saw the video title, I immediately thought this must be from the Philippines. Geez.. I now remember why I hate Pepsi!
'$68,000 dollars doesn't sound like a lot these days'. ok mate
Coca cola had something similar, but the caps had yo-yos, match two and you got a yo-yo. This was also in the early 90s in Mexico.
I remember when they did this. Wasn't aware that it caused so much drama.
Remember when Pepsi promised a Harrier jump jet as a prize and dude sued to get it?
He never got it but I believe they had to pay him millions
Investigate as well an earlier real scandal that Pepsi Philippines had in the 80's where one of their factory drums had a dead person floating inside and the company has sold bottles of their cola from it. This was not known by Pepsi until customers starts complaining about a different taste of the cola and some complained that it contained human hairs. I was too young then to know but my mom and relatives testified that it has happened. I'm not sure if there is any newspaper that has covered this story.
Did this really happen? I googled it but i didn't find anything.
@@zinniaedits Same here. OP mentioned this happened in the 80's so nobody might have documented the incident on the web
@@zinniaedits seems like an urban legend concocted to scare kids into not drinking pepsi since softdrinks like those are considered unhealthy by grown ups. we have lots of these urban legends designed to "discipline" kids here in the philippines.
@@luigi-yx7nc Yeah, also it sounds kind of similar to the whole Elisa Lam thing so maybe it’s just that but with a few details changed?
WOW! Thanks for letting us know of this! Very interesting!
Del Fiarro... what a great man!
Sounds simular to finding the golden ticket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Except there were hundreds of thousands of them.
If they "did everything to try and make this right," they would have paid 1m peso to every winner. Every one. If PepsiCo went bankrupt, that's the price to make everything right.
I know Bloomberg is a business journal, so it inherently defends corporations' right to exist, but if you promise impoverished people that you will get them out of poverty, you should pay them.
Here here, they took advantage.
They ran something very similar in Brazil in the late 90’s. A soccer player with a different shirt color would shoot a penalty kick and score in a quadrant from 1 to 15. The caps would have a shirt color and a quadrant. It was big, but I think they were more careful with the winning caps...
I was born in the late 1990's and I am not aware that this had happen in the Philippines. Thank you for this documentary. I remember coca-cola used to have winning bottle caps in the early 2000s but instead of cash, they give out plates, umbrella and mobile to load to the winners. Why are they still not banned in the PH after the damaged they have caused? Wow.
PepsiCo, a company that gives you bad vibes in contests because they don’t know how to make a contest work properly.
That year Pepsi's sales rose to $168,000,000 in the Phillipines. Paying each of the 349 winners would have cost Pepsi $23,732,000. They could have afforded doing the right thing and it would have been a great PR move that would have earned them millions more in sales in the future. Doing the right thing is way better for a company long term financial success. I can think of the Tylenol recall by Johnson & Johnson as an example of that.
600.000 x 68.000 $ = 36.000.000.000 $
I heard about the story from my uncle , he said Pepsi products barely reach in some part of Mindanao because most are consumed on Luzon and Visayas, but I didn't know this was the reason.
I am a restaurant owner. I had no Idea. We will stop our cooperation with Pepsi asap.
lol
And remember the late 80s early 90s when they had a terrible promo where you open a can and a pop-up will come out that has a prize offer of money or goods. Yeah. That failed the same.
yea i remember that, i was always curious as to how that pop up worked..
I rember this, I was still a kid and love collecting those caps because its like a game. I remember collecting already a quarter sack full of it. Then my grandfather remembering I collect them told me of this 349 thing. When we search we realized I got 5 caps of them. I remember while others protested, me and my grandfather decided to just get what Pepsi already fixed offered on exchange for each cap. We exchange the 4 caps(I forgot the exchange rate) while I keep one as my collection.
Filipina are the best😊
I missed this event completely even though I was already 12 by then and living in one of the provinces that skirted metro Manila.
Pepsi had a hard time recovering ever since that incident in my country.
I kind of want to know what happened to either the idiot or the disgruntled employee who announced one of the losing numbers that had been printed 10,000s of times as "the winning number". If the Philippines demanded the arrest of the Pepsi executives who had nothing to do with it, then I shudder to think of the horrors they subjected the individual employee who actually made the mistake to.
Assuming it was a genuine mistake then I feel for the employee who actually made the error. The contest was extended beyond its original run. I assume that originally certain numbers were planned to be winning numbers from the outset, so extending the contest meant choosing some more winning numbers beyond what was originally planned, and very likely making that choice at a notably later date than the original winning numbers had been decided, which means the colleague in question had to either have very detailed knowledge of which numbers could or could not be chosen, or else was effectively choosing blindly and risking making the blunder that actually got made. It's also possible that numbers that were originally meant to be non-winning were pressed in uncontrolled amounts at that early stage, or at least that the amounts pressed for each number were known at the pressing factory where the lids were made, but were not known by the head office were I assume the extra winning numbers were being decided, since quanitites pressed for non-winning numbers would not necessarily have needed to have been known by head office if the contest had only announced the original number of winning numbers.
So did the news report the wrong number or was it Pepsi ?
The first time the news reported it wrong. The second time pepsi did
I never knew Pepsi is very influential in the 90' to my country until I saw this video.
Thank you for this.