Pepsi Number Fever: The Contest That Set Trucks on Fire

On the evening of May 25, 1992, a Philippine newscast read out one number: 349. Pepsi had planned for exactly two winning bottle caps. Up to 800,000 had been printed. By morning, crowds were at the factory gates holding what they believed was a million pesos each. Not one of them was ever paid the million. This is the full story of Pepsi's Number Fever: the contest that turned a nation into bottle-cap hoarders, the list of winners locked in a bank vault, the 3 a.m. meeting that came up with 500 pesos, the burning trucks and the five people who died in two attacks in 1993, the 22,000 people who went to court, and the second code on every cap that let the Supreme Court of the Philippines rule, fourteen years later, that Pepsi owed them nothing. 0:00 349 1:00 Part One: The Rule 1:53 Part Two: The Fever 2:56 Part Three: 6 p.m., May 25 4:16 Part Four: The Gate 5:49 Part Five: The Second Code 8:43 Part Six: The Trucks 10:30 Part Seven: February 13 11:38 Part Eight: Who Lit the Fuse 12:47 Part Nine: Fourteen Years 15:05 Part Ten: What Was Left Sources: Supreme Court of the Philippines, PepsiCo, Inc. v. Lacanilao (G.R. No. 146007, 26 June 2006); Philstar, "SC decides with finality on 'Pepsi 349' case" (26 June 2006); The Seattle Times, "Pepsi-Cola uncaps a lottery nightmare" (26 July 1993); Jeff Maysh, Bloomberg Businessweek (4 August 2020); A.V. Club; Mental Floss; Wikipedia, "Pepsi Number Fever". Allegations that Pepsi paid for attacks on its own trucks came from one accused man and were denied by the company; they were never proven in court. Reconstructions are stylised 3D animations with faceless figures; no logos or real people are recreated. #pepsi #349incident #numberfever #philippines #marketingfail #documentary