🛩 How to Buy a Military Fighter Jet for the Price of a One-Bedroom Apartment in Moscow?

In 1996, Pepsi launched a promotional campaign. Earn prizes with points from bottle caps. A T-shirt for 75 points, a leather jacket for 1450.
At the end of the commercial, a Harrier fighter jet was shown jokingly landing near a school with a tempting offer: "Harrier Fighter Jet - 7,000,000 points".
Everyone laughed. Except for 21-year-old student John Leonard. He was a genius of attention🕵️

John found a loophole.
In the fine print of the rules, it said you could buy additional points at a price of 10 cents each.

John pulled out a calculator and started calculating.
💲 The military's cost for the fighter jet was a whopping $33,000,000.
💵 The cost of 7 million points from Pepsi: 7,000,000 × $0.10 = $700,000.

The arbitrage of the century! Our hero convinced five investors to give him $700k, wrote a check, and officially sent it to Pepsi with an order form: "One fighter jet, please."
Panic broke out at the company's office. They immediately stopped the check, arguing the idea was a joke. But John took them to court.

Who won, and what does this have to do with events in 2026?