The Weird Pizza Hut Commercial Starring Mikhail Gorbachev
One realm of celebrity that still isn’t leveraged very often for advertising is politics. Well, present American company excluded. Normally, though, especially with higher echelons like heads of state, there’s a certain honor that would feel cheapened by slinging hamburgers.
If, growing up in the 1990s, I was watching Bill Clinton swig Pepsi and mug for the camera, I think that would have been beyond the political pale even for a child. Participating in fast-food commercials while the head of the Soviet Union? That seems like an expression of futility. “When Mikhail Gorbachev shows up in a Pizza Hut commercial” feels like an idiom along the lines of “when hell freezes over.”
And yet, that very commercial exists.
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This isn’t some animated bumper or a sound bite with a picture of him giving a thumbs up, either, but a bona fide live appearance. Prepare to cock your head 10 to 15 degrees to the side, because here it is, archived on YouTube:
He’s not even popping up as a punchline or a cameo. It’s Gorbachev and his granddaughter walking into a Pizza Hut, and then roughly 45 seconds of a family arguing about the ramifications of his political leadership, before all coming to an agreement: at least he brought them Pizza Hut.
Apparently, he was paid a cool million dollars for his appearance, which is the most boring explanation behind such a baffling commercial. I was really hoping for a reveal that Gorbachev was a rabid fan of the short-lived P'Zone and did it in exchange for a lifetime supply. And yes, I realize that the Soviet Union and P’Zone’s timelines don’t overlap, but we’re having fun here.
Another weird detail is that because Gorbachev wasn’t all that popular in Russia, it never actually aired there.
Inarguably the strangest part of all, though, is that somewhere on Earth, there must be someone who saw Mikhail Gorbachev’s face, and as a result, picked up the phone and ordered a pizza.
