Pepsi had a chance to play this smart / cool, but they botched it with their disgusting reaction

Offering 2 cases (packs? cartons? whatever) of Pepsi for John was absolutely disgusting from Pepsi.

At that point, their response could have been legendary. John is clearly part of that "Pepsi generation" they tried to advertise for. He is celarly resourceful, found money and support for his plan to get the 7 million points. So all Pepsi should have done was to offer John something that 1. Treats him as a human being, or at least as a valuable customer and 2. Has tremendous PR value.

So for example: invite John to an airfield, book a meeting with a pilot who is flying Harriers. Spin an ad campaign around it, offer John a contract, make him a prominent figure, promoting Pepsi. Offer him a job at Pepsi. Show that you appreciate the lenghts he went for getting the jet. Of course at some point that involves them backpedaling from their promise and admitting it was not a real offer, but they could have played that cool if in the meantime they treating John right.

But they botched this horribly. And the guy who came up with the ad idea, showed the smoking gun, the original outline of the ad, which had seven hundred million Pepsi points. And they wanted to change it to 7, because of "too many zeroes". In front of a jury, under oath he would have had to tell that story. And that is an open and shut case from that point. Obviously Pepsi could not let that happen.

And who am I kidding? The "Pepsi generation" was bullshit. They don't need customers who can think for themselves. They want mindless crowds, consuming their product. Therefore everything they project through commercials is bullshit. And there is no chance of treating anyone fairly - they could not even realize the possible PR-gain in that situation...

... and the most painful reality of it all is that from a corporate standpoint they were right to treat John that way. They got off the hook, cleanly. No trial before a jury, no chance for John and co. to get a fair outcome. So even though they made the epic mistake of not including fine print, they got away with it unscratched. Truly disgusting.