Once in a while, you’ll hear some big-shot company do a promotional stunt for publicity, because sales are down, or for fun. Most of the time, these events do well or okay. Other times, they result in riots, death, or, in this case, a lawsuit that stemmed from a joke.

This case was that last one.

In the mid-90s, Pepsi was facing being overshadowed by Coca-Cola as the top pop soda soda pop soft drink coke carbonated beverage brand. So, in 1996, they launched Pepsi Stuff, a promo stunt where people could get Pepsi Points by purchasing a bottle of Pepsi, which would earn them points and could be redeemed for stuff like Pepsi merch. They ran ads showcasing what you could buy, and one of those included a fake, Pepsi-branded AV-8 Harrier II, which is a Harrier jet manufactured by McDonnell Douglas for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points, which civilians can’t legally own unless it’s demilitarized. But that didn’t stop 21-year-old business student John Leonard!

The ad stated that Pepsi Points could be bought for 10¢, so Leonard sent a check for $700,008.50, which was just enough Pepsi Points (plus $10 shipping and handling and 15 labels) to get the jet, but upon cashing them in, he was declined. Why? Because it was a joke!

Leonard was not amused and sued them on fraud charges, prompting the case Leonard v. PepsiCo, Inc, decided by the Southern New York district court.

The outcome? Leonard lost.

The reason for the ruling was that Pepsi couldn’t be guilty, as they offered it as a joke, and it wasn’t really legal to purchase one (see above). But to stop this from happening again, they increased the Pepsi Point price to 700 million Pepsi Points, and also told people it was a joke. And, like all crazy things in life, a Netflix docuseries was made about the incident.

The lesson here is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. And make sure you check out the fine print before you sue a company, or else you’ll end up looking stupid!