Liquid Death is giving away a fighter jet—for real, unlike Pepsi’s ill-fated ’90s contest

In 1996, in one of the most notorious brand controversies of all time, Pepsi offered a Harrier fighter jet to anyone who could amass 7 million “Pepsi Points”—the virtual currency of the brand’s loyalty program. The whole thing, however, was meant to be a joke—a non-giveaway, if you will. Pepsi figured no one could get that many points. However, one man did—he exploited a loophole in the fine print—and he ended up taking Pepsi to court when it failed to produce the jet. The whole saga was recounted in a recent Netflix documentary, “Pepsi, Where's My Jet?” Now, though, Liquid Death is stepping up and offering a jet—for real. Also read: Coinbase wins Liquid Death’s auction to put ads on 500,000 cases Dubbed “The Dehydrator,” the aircraft is an Aero L-39C Albatros, with a top speed of 470 miles per hour and some 4,000-foot pounds of thrust. The video above gives a taste of what the winner can expect when he or she climbs into the cockpit. The giveaway is tied to a retail promotion launching this week. Each can of Liquid Death water purchased (up to 400 cans) counts as one entry into the contest. You enter by taking a photo of your physical receipt and uploading it to liquiddeath.com/jet. Entries close Sept. 4. The winner also get a year’s supply of Liquid Death, six months of hangar space and a jet pilot's helmet. Acquiring the jet, sorting out the legal questions around giving it away, and shooting the promo were all very complex, Andy Pearson, VP of creative at Liquid Death, told Ad Age. The company actually looked into doing this giveaway a few years ago, but it was too challenging at the time. “Hands down, this is the most difficult thing we’ve ever done,” Pearson said. “I can see why the other company did not want to go through with this, beyond the cost.” (LD is being careful not to reference Pepsi by name as part of this project, for obvious reasons.) Pearson said he expects the giveaway to be “huge in retail.” “In the process of doing this, we learned there was another internet celebrity, a content creator, who is very well known who also tried to do this previously and he also could not pull off,” Pearson said. “But we don’t take no for an answer.” Popular Creativity stories from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

Liquid Death is giving away a fighter jet—for real, unlike Pepsi’s ill-fated ’90s contest

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