30 Years Ago: A Look Back at How The Pepsi 349 Promo Ended in Riots

The aftermath of the biggest Pepsi promo also ended with five deaths

PEPSI 349

It has been 30 years since it happened. The promise of becoming a millionaire ended in tragedy.

Nobody wanted it to happen, not Pepsi and not the thousands of people who, on May 25, 1992, thought they won a million pesos or $37,000.

In 1992, I was in my 20s already. The Philippines, where I am from, was a very poor country. Six years after democracy was restored, the Filipino people had to fight hard to oust Ferdinand Marcos and his family in a peaceful people power revolution. I remember life was hard, and Filipinos' last chance of hope of a better life was by winning a million pesos from a Pepsi giveaway that turned dreams into a nightmare.

The Pepsi promo was simple.

Drink a Pepsi, win a million pesos.

All you have to collect is the Pepsi bottle crown and match the numbers with the winning numbers, and you can collect your One Million Pesos.

It started very well with Pepsi that its biggest competitor Coca Cola was "very concerned." In 1992 even the poorest of the poor bought Pepsi instead of food. Some even turn to garbage cans to look for Pepsi crowns.

Pepsi Number Fever: Bloomberg Calls It One of History's Biggest Marketing Disaster

The nightmare began on May 25, 1992

The winning number was 349.

Thousands of people that night probably didn't sleep after hearing the winning number, 349, as millions of Filipino were glued on their TV sets, each day waiting for their lucky number to be called.

It happened to the holders of Pepsi 349 crowns. All they have to do is wait for the dawning of the new day, head to the nearest Pepsi plant, and exchange their winning crown for a million pesos.

Most of them were probably surprised to see that many people all held the winning 349 crowns, and Pepsi management was just as surprised because 349 wasn't supposed to win any prize.

Pepsi had printed 349 as a non-winning number in hundreds of thousands of Pepsi bottles. And before the day was over, Pepsi was caught in the biggest marketing scandal in its history.

It was a nightmare for Pepsi and the Filipino people who thought they had become millionaires.

Riots and Deaths Followed

While it was ruled as a mistake that nobody wanted, Pepsi, as a sign of goodwill, promised 500 pesos to all holders of 349 crowns, the cost of which to Pepsi was a staggering $10 million. However, some refused and called for Pepsi to pay the full amount of one million pesos.

Soon riots erupted outside of Pepsi plants.

It resulted in the unfortunate death of 3 of its employees with the bombing of Pepsi trucks. In the Southern Philippines, a homemade grenade bounced off a truck in a tragic explosion killing a schoolteacher named Aniceta Rosario and a five-year-old girl.

Coalition 349

The legal battle began when a preacher took on the cudgel of organizing the group Coalition 349. The fight fell on the shoulders of Vicente Del Fierro Jr., whose daughter also had a winning Pepsi 349 crown.

It was a long battle, which Del Fierro brought all the way to the US, but none of the courts in the US will take the case as everyone said the jurisdiction fell with the Philippine courts.

Del Fierro also faced legal troubles. First, there were libel cases that were thrown at him. But, in the end, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled in favor of Pepsi, and soon the biggest marketing scandal faded away.

“Final and executory rulings have settled that 349 crowns bearing the wrong security code are not winning crowns. Hence, petitioner PCPPI is not liable to pay the amounts printed on the crowns to their holders. Nor is PCPPI liable for damages thereon.” — Philippine SC Decision in 2007

Vic Del Fierro died in 2010. His daughter created a website to honor him and the Coalition 349.

The Cola Wars

It never really ended. A few days ago, we all watched the Super Bowl halftime show brought to us by Pepsi.

Since 1992, Pepsi has diversified to other consumer products and has a market value of close to $230 billion. If Pepsi had paid all the claimants of Pepsi 349 in 1992, the company would have paid $32 billion.

Greed is all around us, and sadly, misery is for the poor.

Further readings:

A PEPSI GIVEAWAY, GONE WRONG

Number Fever: The Pepsi Contest That Became a Deadly Fiasco

PEPSI ACCUSED OF SELF-SABOTAGE AFTER CONTEST GOOF

Read my other stories about Crime.