DISCLAIMER: Watching "Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?" may cause feelings of nostalgia, excitement, anger and disbelief

I remember 1996 like it was yesterday. . . actually, I don’t.  My brain RAM has so many other things it needs to easily access that some memories from my formative years are way back in the hard-to-reach archives.  Watching Netflix’s docuseries, Pepsi, Where’s My Jet brought me back to my 20s, back to the Pepsi generation, back to Whitewater and the appropriately dubbed “Storm of the Century”.  I’ll admit that while I do remember the raging cola wars of the mid-90s, I do not recall John Leonard and his quest  to win a Harrier Jet with Pepsi points.  During Pepsi’s attempt to take the coveted #1 selling cola spot away from Coke, they ran a series of ads promoting their sugary goodness and associated points system.  The “Pepsi Stuff’ campaign was pretty straight forward. You buy a can of Pepsi, you get a point, xx points gets you Pepsi branded merch.  Now, your ability for recall may be better than mine and, in that case, you may remember the commercial that started it all.  

Our ‘hero,’ John Leonard was a 21-year-old community college student with big dreams, lots of little jobs and a drive, nay, chutzpah to go after what he wanted and believed he deserved.  In the final frame of the Pepsi Stuff commercial that inspired Leonard’s crusade for the jet, a kid lands a Harrier Jet in front of his school and casually says “beats the bus” followed by a super that says ‘Harrier Fighter, 7,000,000 Pepsi Points’.  Being an objective viewer in my 20s or even now, not in my 20s, the offer for a multi-million-dollar fighter jet so prominently featured in 1994’s True Lies (which by the way I DO remember) seemed like a clever/funny/memorable way to wrap the ad and not really represent a legitimate offer.  

John however, interpreted the commercial as so many other Gen-Xers had, as being a genuine offer.  He became obsessed with finding a way to collect 7M Pepsi Points to obtain his jet.  John’s original plan of buying and consuming an ungodly amount of Pepsi failed pretty quickly, he knew he needed some outside council.  Enter Todd Hoffman, an eccentric, successful and older friend of John’s who would be needed to bankroll his grand plans of acquiring millions of Pepsi Points.  Todd is bitingly honest and genuine throughout the 4-part series which was a refreshing contrast to the smarmy, aloof former Pepsi chief marketing officer.  

Throughout the series, we meet several other colorful characters and there were a couple of folks from the ad agency side, (Michael Patti in particular) that I had genuine empathy for, mostly because I see myself in them and have lived through some similar, albeit less grand, situations.  Pepsi’s questionable practices, unsavory execs and unwillingness to openly take responsibility for some very blatant missteps left a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended).  

Pepsi, Where’s My Jet is a worthwhile ride which includes some high-profile people taking the Pepsi challenge. The unexpected side story of John and Todd’s friendship was pretty uplifting even if the producers did toy with my emotions a little. If you’re remotely from the 90s, love rooting for the little guy and have a general dislike for abusive corporate power, especially in our judicial system, this 4-parter is for you.

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