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When the Soviet Union Paid Pepsi in Warships
- linkmotif 9y ago> Nixon also led Khrushchev towards a display booth that dispensed nothing other than Pepsi-Cola. Symbolically, the booth offered two batches: one mixed with American water, the other with Russian. Sheer genius!
- twic 9y agoThat reminds me that the Russians and Americans drink different water on the International Space Station: http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/spaceflight/space-food/americans-russians-drink-waters-iss/ http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/spaceflight/space-food/am...
- trumpsamerica 9y agoIf we're going to mark every happening as something to learn about then this place would be no different from reddit. Next up- How Trumps threatening tweets helped being NK to the table?
- al2o3cr 9y agoSo it wasn't totally implausible to think they could deliver a jump jet in exchange for enough points. :)
- wlesieutre 9y agoFor anyone who doesn't remember Pepsi ads from the mid-90's: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/1996-man-sues-pepsi-for-not-giving-him-a-harrier-jet/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/1996-man-sues-pepsi-for-not-giv... >The campaign was simple, reported CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. Buy Pepsi products, collect points from Pepsi labels and claim prizes like t-shirts, sunglasses, or - for 7 million points - a Harrier Jet. >In the end, Leonard's lawsuit fizzled out. A court granted a summary judgment in favor of Pepsi and ruled that, "no objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier Jet."
- wlesieutre 9y agoHere's the legal case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_v._Pepsico,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_v._Pepsico,_Inc.
- joering2 9y agoSo if there is no liability for lying in ads, then why should there be any recourse for lying in reporting "news" ? Sadly, looking at the future from the the precedence of this 1999 case, it makes Benedict Arnold a joke comparing to what Judge Kimba Wood did to the future of this country.
- openasocket 9y agoThere is liability for lying in ads, but the ruling was that no reasonable person could watch that ad and conclude they were seriously offering a Harrier Jet. And there is liability for lying in reporting news.
- joering2 9y agoWhy not? $260MM for Jet versus $450MM winning in powerball lottery. I never heard Lottery officials saying "noone would reasonably request us to pay them $450 millions for a dollar worth ticket". And who am I as a viewer of said advertise to decide or come to "reasonable" conclusion whether company can pay it out or not?? Clearly this man should win. Promise is a promise.
- openasocket 9y agoIt's not unreasonable because of the price tag, it's unreasonable because depicts a child flying a Harrier jet to school, saying "sure beats the bus!". Here's the quote: "In light of the Harrier Jet's well-documented function in attacking and destroying surface and air targets, armed reconnaissance and air interdiction, and offensive and defensive anti-aircraft warfare, depiction of such a jet as a way to get to school in the morning is clearly not serious even if, as plaintiff contends, the jet is capable of being acquired 'in a form that eliminates [its] potential for military use." It should also be noted civilians cannot even purchase a working Harrier Jet, for any price, legally.
- dingaling 9y agoIn RAF ready-rooms there used to be photos of Soviet aircraft crews holding-up bottles of Pepsi to their intercepting NATO counterparts. Now I know why.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoThe Soviets also traded Lada cars for New Zealand dairy products (mainly butter) [1], and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia apparently even offered MiG fighter jets, a nuclear submarine, and tanks in an attempt to pay its $200mm debt it owed the New Zealand Dairy Board [2], which is particularly ironic as New Zealand was at the time (and still is) a nuclear free nation. [1] http://www.hoonable.com/butter-for-cars-how-the-lada-came-to-new-zealand/ http://www.hoonable.com/butter-for-cars-how-the-lada-came-to... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/15/russia-offered-newzealand-military-hardware https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/15/russia-offered...
- disordinary 9y agoYeah, I was going to mention that. My dad worked for the NZ Dairy Corporation (which later merged with Kiwi Dairy to become the conglomerate known as Fonterra) at the time, and they had warehouses full of cars that they had no idea what to do with.
- maxxxxx 9y agoThey should have taken the fighter jets and the nuclear submarine instead of cars...
- disordinary 9y agoIn New Zealand territories all nuclear weapons are banned, which is why the US navy is banned from operating in NZ waters as they don't disclose what ships are nuclear powered or carrying weapons. Also, what's a dairy company going to do with fighters? At least they could sell cars and sell / give tractors to their farmers.
- twic 9y ago> Also, what's a dairy company going to do with fighters? Instead of a merger with Kiwi Dairy, they could have had a (very) hostile takeover.
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- baybal2 9y agoFor people lucky to not to be born in the Eastern bloc: All that Pepsi was destined to closely guarded, party member only, soviet department stores stocked full of Western luxuries in the time when Soviet citizens were subsisting on bread and water.
- ch4ck 9y agoI was born in "the Eastern bloc" and Pepsi (Pepsi-Cola, Mirinda) was present in stores in my region. One could buy Coke too but its availability was limited.
- IWeldMelons 9y agoYawn. When I was growing up in USSR of 1980s, Pepsi was _everywhere_, for the cost 0.35 of a rouble for 0.33L. Soviet soda was .25 for .5 liter. Nor our family (teachers) was "subsistent" in any way. I remember having meat everyday, every once in a while my parents would buy a chocolate cake. It was much poorer than US, true, but waaay more affluent than China, India, Africa and rather capitalist Latin America.
- da02 9y agoWhat part of the USSR did you grow up in? Was it a major city?
- IWeldMelons 9y agoA big city in Central Asia.
- da02 9y agoWhat was the name of it? Or do you have to keep it a secret?
- jacquesm 9y agoWhen I was living in Poland in the mid 1980's you were very lucky to be able to buy toilet paper, lightbulbs, bread, meat, fruit and a ton of other everyday stuff. Though lots of people knew someone who knew someone that had just slaughtered a pig which could get you some meat. Hard currency bought you stuff from those stores the GP mentions, called Pewex, something like Pepsi was not seen in regular stores not operated by the government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewex
- robterrell 9y agoAfter my uncle sold his chain of Byte Shop computer stores, he started a business selling Apple ][+ clones to the Soviet Union. He told me he traded them for lumber -- this was after the olympics and I guess the vodka boycott was stillin effect.
- qbaqbaqba 9y agoLumber played an important role in computer development in the Eastern Block: Polish computer manufacturer Kowary(I believe somehow connected with ELWRO) had their own sawmill and would buy western components for profits made selling pallets. Insane.
- jhbadger 9y agoInteresting in that the Soviets had their own homegrown Apple ][ clone, the Agat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agat_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agat_(computer) But maybe they couldn't make them in sufficient quantities?
- swagtricker 9y agoSo... the "cola wars" of the 1980's that Billy Joel sings about could have actually taken a much darker turn?
- itissid 9y agoIt is amazing how long the USSR lasted as long as it did. I think in the end all communist regimes fell because of the failures of central planning(even though it bore gems like Linear Programming and Ukraine's then booming agriculture and the Space program). I think its failures were tied to economic failures, if you can make the economy work for the masses, people really don't care for much else it seems....
- paulddraper 9y ago> if you can make the economy work for the masses, people really don't care for much else it seems.... "It's the economy, stupid"
- qbaqbaqba 9y agoChina seems to have hit the sweet spot(?).
- umanwizard 9y agoChina does not have a communist regime, despite the name.
- disordinary 9y agoMost capitalistic country I've ever been to.
- InclinedPlane 9y agoNeither did the Soviet Union to be honest. Like so many things, what it's called and what it is are different entities. The USSR was a communist-inspired totalitarian command economy. It was not as unprecedented an invention as many would imagine. It was similar to many systems of monarchic and aristocratic rule, the only difference was that the requirements for membership in the aristocracy were ideologically tinged rather than predominantly based on notions of hereditary nobility. It also would have seemed fairly familiar to anyone who had lived under a Bronze age palatial city-state command economy. Modern China has also only ever had an ideologically tinged totalitarian command economy, though they loosened up in the '90s or so and became more of some variant of crony capitalism (just like us!).