A family which struck lucky multiple times on a £500 per hour Pepsi competition have been left fizzing after the beverage maker chose to dock them of several of their prizes.
The on pack promotion, fronted by Didier Drogba, offered Pepsi drinkers the chance to win £500 every hour simply by submitting part of a barcode online or by text, something the family proceeded to do a staggering 11,000 times (by slightly varying their email addresses).
Such was the industrial scale of their operation that they had the equivalent of 35 entries in each draw Pepsi made, submitting over 500 entries an hour in some cases.
This dedication was duly rewarded by several wins of the cash prize – but Pepsi was less impressed opting to strip the winners of several of their wins, awarding only the first win to each family member, on the grounds that they hadn’t participated in the spirit of the competition.
Explaining its decision Pepsi stated that its terms and conditions articulate that ‘bulk, consumer group, third party or agent entries’ were not admissible.
In its adjudication the ASA concurred that the families actions had not been ‘in the spirit of the competition’ but that Pepsi had offered no evidence that the family had used any bulk processing methods other than devising many email accounts.
In the ASA's view Pepsi had thus run an unfair competition, they said: “We therefore considered that to withdraw the prizes subsequently, and in some cases over a month after those entrants had been notified of the wins, caused unnecessary disappointment.”
In a statement PepsiCo said: "We are disappointed with the ASA’s ruling as we feel the terms and conditions of the competition made clear the restriction on the number of entries. We strongly believe the Pepsi MAX promotion was administered fairly and honourably, but will review our conditions going forward."