Anyone who does not know the popular beverage brand, Pepsi. If you often visit fast food restaurants or cinemas, Pepsi is an option available to customers.
However, did you know that, due to Pepsi, there have been incidents of riots and killings near the Philippines that have killed at least five people.
In 1992, Pepsi Philippines (PCPPI) began to feel challenged by the popularity of Coca Cola drinks because at that time, sales of Coca Cola in the market of the country reached 75% but Pepsi only gained 17%.
So PCPPI plans a marketing strategy by organizing a lucky draw event or known as ‘Number Fever’. Each Pepsi, Mirinda and 7-Up bottle cap is placed with a three digit number and security code for verification.
Lucky numbers will be counted as winners. Prizes for the event are around US $ 4 to US $ 40,000 for the grand prize.
The strategy was successful, Filipinos flocked to buy Pepsi drinks in hopes of winning.
Pepsi's profit increased by 40% during the first two weeks of the event and the PCPPI stock market jumped from 4% to 24.9%.
Every day PCPPI will hold a live broadcast on television to announce the lucky numbers. PCPPI also ensured that funds raised for the entire campaign did not exceed US $ 2 million.
By May, a total of 51,000 prizes had been redeemed including 17 major prizes.
It can be said that the whole family in the Philippines will be waiting in front of the television every night in the hope that their numbers will be announced as winners.
On May 25, PCPPI announced that the number of major prize winners worth US $ 40,000 was 349.
But unexpectedly, PCPPI, which was supposed to print the serial number on two bottles, made a big mistake. Due to technical problems, the company actually printed the number on 800,000 bottles but without the security code.
Therefore, those who were announced as the winners went to claim the prize but Pepsi refused to pay too much money to them on the grounds that all the bottle caps involved did not have a security code.
If PCPPI 'served' the demands of all 800,000 people, they would have to spend about US $ 32 billion.
Following the mistake, PCPPI offered US $ 18 cash to all the winners but the action caused dissatisfaction among all the winners.
A group of protesters known as Pakatan 349 began protesting in front of the PCPPI headquarters and the government in Manila for five days.
A total of 37 Pepsi trucks were set on fire, stoned and overturned until police had to intervene by throwing tear gas at protesters. Two people were killed in the incident.
There were a handful of protesters who threw grenades towards the PCPPI warehouse in Davao, killing three people. In fact, PCPPI executives also received death threats.
Some have claimed that PepsiCo hired soldiers to plan the attack with the aim of accusing the protesters of being a terrorist group. However, Philippine MP Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the attack was likely carried out by a rival company trying to take advantage of the fragility of the PCPPI at the time.
The incident also caused Pepsi sales to drop sharply and exacerbated the situation when about 22,000 people filed lawsuits against PepsiCo, involving 689 civil lawsuits as well as 5,200 criminal complaints.
However, in 2006, the Philippine Supreme Court acquitted PepsiCo of all criminal charges.
This event teaches us all that with just one mistake, bad things can happen at any time.
