Pepsi Billion Dollar Sweepstakes
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The Pepsi Billion Dollar Sweepstakes was a contest, announced by soft drink company Pepsi Cola on April 10, 2003, beginning on May 1 and ending on September 14, all of the same year. For the contest, Pepsi printed one billion special codes, which could be redeemed either on the Pepsi website or via postal mail, and of which one million were instant cash winners (eg a $20 instant prize). Of all the codes redeemed, which Pepsi estimated to be 200 million-300 million, only 1,000 were chosen in a random drawing to appear in a two-hour live gameshow-style television special.
On the evening of September 14, the final day of the contest, the now-defunct WB network aired the special, entitled Play For A Billion, and hosted by Drew Carey. The special had ten people picked from the audience out of the thousand who won the right to be competing on the special. The host would then offer some cash to the contestants to give them a choice—take the money and run, or risk it by seeing if they were not the closest to the winning number. The players had to wait 10, 20, and eventually 30 seconds for each result. After the rounds were done, the last person left won $1,000,000 and a chance to turn the million into $1,000,000,000, the highest prize on any US game show (counting specials and lottery shows). The winner's six-digit number had to match the number that a chimpanzee selected to win the grand prize. In the 2003 version, Richard Bay of West Virginia claimed the million-dollar guaranteed prize, but did not win the billion (his number was 2-2-8-2-3-8, the winning number was 1-7-8-2-3-8). The next year, Jon Kenney of Natick, Massachusetts, won a guaranteed million dollars, but like Richard, did not win the billion. That year's show was hosted by Damon Wayans and Tom Bergeron
Pepsi, unable to assume the risk of actually losing $1 billion, had an insurance company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, the largest stockholder in cola-rival Coca-Cola, underwrite the contest, reportedly for a seven-figure premium.
The $1 billion prize was an annuity to be paid in 40 annual payments as follows:
Years 1-20: $5 million each (subtotal: $100 million after 20 years)
Years 21-39: $10 million each ($290 million after 39 years)
Year 40: $710 million (balloon payment)
There was a cash option of $250 million if the billion-dollar prize were to be won. The guaranteed $1 million (see above) was paid in lump sum in both instances.
[edit] References
- Money Magazine, April 10, 2003, "Pepsi's billion-dollar monkey"
- Money Magazine, September 4, 2003, "Pepsi's $1B chimp arrives"
