Pepsi Number Fever - Wikipedia

Pepsi Number Fever,[1] also known as the 349 incident,[2] was a promotion held by PepsiCo in the Philippines in 1992, which led to riots[3] and the deaths of at least five people.[4]

In February 1992,[2] Pepsi Philippines (PCPPI) announced that they would print numbers, ranging from 001 to 999,[5] inside the caps (crowns) of Pepsi, 7-Up, Mountain Dew and Mirinda bottles. Certain numbers could be redeemed for prizes, which ranged from 100 pesos (about US$4) to 1 million pesos for a grand prize (roughly US$40,000 in 1992),[6] equivalent to approximately 23 years of earnings at 118 pesos per day, the minimum wage in the Philippines at the time.[7] Pepsi allocated a total of US$2 million for prizes.[4] Marketing specialist Pedro Vergara based Pepsi Number Fever on similar, moderately successful promotions that had been held previously in Vergara's geographic area of expertise, Latin America.[8]

Pepsi Number Fever was initially wildly successful, and increased Pepsi's market share from 4% to 24.9%.[4] Winning numbers were announced on television nightly. By May, 51,000 prizes had been redeemed, including 17 grand prizes.[6]

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