Pepsi Number Fever, also known as the 349 incident, was a promotion held by PepsiCo in the Philippines in 1992, which led to riots and the deaths of at least five people.
Promotion
In February 1992, Pepsi Philippines announced that they would print numbers, ranging from 001 to 999, inside the caps of Pepsi, 7-Up and Mirinda bottles. Certain numbers could be redeemed for prizes, which ranged from 100 pesos to 1 million pesos for a grand prize, equivalent to approximately 23 years of earnings at 118 pesos per day, the minimum wage in the Philippines at the time. Pepsi allocated a total of US$2 million for prizes. Marketing specialist Pedro Vergara based Pepsi Number Fever on similar, moderately successful promotions that had been held previously in Vergara's geographic area of expertise, Latin America. Pepsi Number Fever was initially wildly successful, and increased Pepsi's market share from 4% to 24.9%. Winning numbers were announced on television nightly. By May, 51,000 prizes had been redeemed, including 17 grand prizes.
Number 349
On May 25, the nightly Channel 2 News broadcast announced that grand prize number for that day was 349. Grand prize-winning bottle caps were tightly controlled by PepsiCo; two bottles with caps with that day's winning number printed inside of them, as well as a security code for confirmation, had been produced and distributed. However, because of a computer error, 800,000 regular bottle caps had also been printed with the number 349. Theoretically, these bottle caps were cumulatively worth US$32 billion. Thousands of Filipinos rushed to Pepsi bottling plants to claim their prizes. PCPPI initially responded that the erroneously printed bottle caps did not have the confirmation security code, and therefore could not be redeemed. After an emergency meeting of PCPPI and PepsiCo executives at 3:00a.m., the company offered 500 pesos to holders of mistakenly printed bottle caps, as a "gesture of good will". This offer would be accepted by 486,170 people, at a cost to PepsiCo of US$8.9 million. Many irate 349 bottle cap holders refused to accept PCPPI's settlement offer. They formed a consumer group, the 349 Alliance, which organized a boycott of Pepsi products, and held rallies outside the offices of PCPPI and the Philippine government. Most protests were peaceful, but three PCPPI employees were killed by a grenade thrown into a warehouse in Davao, and a mother and child were killed in Manila on February 13, 1993, by a grenade thrown at a Pepsi truck. PCPPI executives received death threats, and as many as 37 company trucks were damaged by being pushed over, stoned or burned. Some accused PepsiCo of hiring mercenaries to stage the attacks, in order to frame the protestors as terrorists; then-senator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo however suggested that the attacks were being perpetrated by rival bottlers attempting to take advantage of PCPPI's vulnerability.
Legal action
About 22,000 people took legal action against PepsiCo; at least 689 civil suits and 5,200 criminal complaints for fraud and deception were filed. On June 24, 1996, a trial court awarded the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits 10,000 pesos each in "moral damages". Three dissatisfied plaintiffs appealed, and on July 3, 2001, the appellate court awarded these three plantiffs 30,000 pesos each, as well as attorneys' fees. PCPPI appealed this decision. The suit would reach the Supreme Court, which in 2006 ruled that "PCPPI is not liable to pay the amounts printed on the crowns to their holders. Nor is PCPPI liable for damages thereon", and that "the issues surrounding the 349 incident have been laid to rest and must no longer be disturbed in this decision."
