Pepsi's 349 Fiasco

I was browsing old Ig Noble awards for kicks tonight, and I came across one that just takes the cake. It was the 1993 Peace Ig Noble, awarded to Pepsi Cola of the Phillipines for their "Number Fever" promotion, which ended in disaster when Pepsi mistakenly announced a million-peso winning number held by 800,000 people.
There are also a tremendous price paid. In all, at least two people died, scores were injured, and 38 Pepsi trucks were damaged by the anti-Pepsi 349 movement. Some 10,000 civil and criminal cases were slapped against Pepsi. Since people generally think it was Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines that was responsible for the mix-up, PCPPI is the accused in the nearly all the cases. In none of the cases was PepsiCo sued. Pepsi has cases against it in some 100 courtrooms.

Wow, that's serious. As Jenny said, "You don't fuck with these people!"