2022 produced a lot of documentaries and spin off tv shows about some awfully dark subject matter. While stories of Jimmy Seveille, Anna Sorokin, Elizabeth Holmes and countless other weirdos and cult leaders who are now behind bars made us all impressively depressed with how terrible they are, the Pepsi Jet doc came in late in the game to make us all feel warm and fuzzy inside before the holidays.
If you grew up in the 90s, you likely remember the seeing the commercial below, I certainly do. I even remember thinking that although it was likely a joke and that Pepsi never had any intention of actually offering anyone a military jet, collecting 70 million Pepsi points also didn't seem like a completely impossible task for someone with the right resources to pull it off. Well that someone was John Leonard and Mike Hoffman. After finding a loophole in the fine print of the Pepsi points offer that allowed participants to purchase the points for 10 cents a piece, they mailed a check to Pepsi for 700k.
Pepsi, Where's my Jet is a essentially a buddy documentary, a story about a couple pals with an idea and the will to make it work. It's also a David vs Goliath story of the little guys who take aim at a megalithic corrupt corporation who steps on the little guys just to make a buck. It is basically Pineapple Express meets Erin Brockovich, and also it really happened (please come back for more awesome reviews like this).
Without a doubt one best parts of the three part documentary is a surprise visit from (SPOILER ALERT, seriously, I warned you) Michael Avenatti, who represented Leonard's lawsuit for some time after Pepsi didn't cough up the jet. He's seen walking down the steps of what looks like a run down apartment building where he presumably now lives, and then grovels about how awful his life is now thats he's facing multiple felony accounts for trying to extort Nike.
I'm not really much for nostalgia, I think a lot of the 90s sucked and that anyone who yearns to go back to a time before we had computers in our pockets that give us instant dopamine hits whenever we are bored, are stupid idiots. Nonetheless, this documentary was awesome, especially if you like mountain climbing analogies because there is a lot of those in this.