WATCH: 1998 Pizza Hut ad featuring former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev 

Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev did not only go against the league in his years at the Kremlin but also after it. Gorbachev, well known for his policies like glasnost (openness) and perestroika (change or reform), featured in a Pizza Hut commercial in 1998, years after leaving office. 

The ad begins with Gorbachev walking across Red Square and into a franchise of the pizza chain. Customers in the restaurant debate Gorbachev’s legacy and reforms. One of the diners says, “Because of him, we have economic confusion!”.  

Another diner says that it is due to the late Soviet leader’s policies that we have opportunity and freedom. A lady hears all the back-and-forth on Gorbachev’s reforms and says, “Because of him, we have many things like Pizza Hut!”. Following this, all customers look towards the leader and say “Hail Gorbachev!” 

This was, however, not the only advertisement Gorbachev appeared in. He also campaigned for luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton in 2007. In this campaign, he was pictured looking out of the car at the Berlin Wall with a bag on his side and the slogan, “A journey brings us face to face with ourselves.” He featured in advert campaigns for Western brands to raise money his foundation.  

As the Soviet Union leader, he introduced reforms like perestroika, glasnost and a crackdown on excessive drinking. Perestroika was aimed at modernizing the Soviet economy and society. Glasnost, on the other hand, means making information public, an end to government’s censorship on international radio stations and publishing banned literature.  

One of his most unpopular reform was aimed at curbing excessive drinking. A central committee resolution with the slogan “Sobriety is the norm of life” was passed and printed in all newspapers in 1985. Under this policy move, Gorbachev imposed limits on hours when alcohol would be available and ordered destruction of vineyards.  

“The era of Gorbachev is the era of perestroika, the era of hope, the era of entry into a missile-free world… but there was one miscalculation: we did not know our country well,” Gorbachev’s former protocol office head Vladimir Shevchenko told news agency Reuters.  

Also read: Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended Cold War without bloodshed, dies at 91