Saturday, January 13, 2024

The Story Behind the 1998 Pizza Hut Commercial That Featured Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev

 From Vintage Everyday:


In the commercial, Gorbachev and his then-10-year-old granddaughter, Anastasia, are shown walking through Moscow’s Red Square and stopping at a Pizza Hut. Spoken in Russian with English subtitles, the commercial focuses on Pizza Hut’s new Edge Pizza. A family of diners spots Gorbachev a few tables away and starts arguing about whether he took them to “the edge of economic ruin, the edge of chaos.”

“Because of him, we have freedom,” a young man tells Gorbachev’s critic. An older female sympathizer gets in the last word: “Because of him we have many things, like Pizza Hut!” This prompts others to raise a slice to chants of “Hail to Gorbachev!” The commercial hawked pizza, but it also had political overtones of Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

Better known in the US, here's Ronald Reagan at History.com - "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

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