Tuesday’s death of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, is bringing new attention to his accomplishments ― and his 1998 Pizza Hut commercial.
Yes, after the end of the Cold War, the former Russian leader chose to sell hot pizza as a way to raise money for a research foundation, according to a 1997 CNN article.
“I’m in the process of creating a library and a perestroika archive, and this project requires certain funds,” Gorbachev said at the time. “Perestroika (restructuring) gave impetus to Russia and to the whole world. It is very important that everything that happened be preserved in these two centers.”
While Gorbachev didn’t confirm how much he was paid, sources claimed he was reportedly paid nearly $1 million (£0.86 million) to do the advertisement, according to The New York Times. The commercial, which shows him dining at a Pizza Hut with his granddaughter Anastasia, debuted all over the world.
However, in Russia Gorbachev was still unpopular at the time and the ad was not aired despite it being filmed in Moscow, The New York Times reported.
Negotiations between Pizza Hut and Gorbachev took a bit of time because while he was willing to take the dough for the ad, he said “nyet” to eating the pizza on camera, according to reports.
Hence, the casting of his granddaughter, who willingly chowed down on a slice to appease Pizza Hut executives, according to a 2019 deep dive into the commercial by Foreign Policy.
Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, initially feared doing commercials would harm his reputation. But he ended up also doing a 2007 magazine ad for Louis Vuitton where he’s sitting in a car next to remaining parts of the Berlin Wall.
HuffPost reached out to Pizza Hut for comment, but no one immediately responded. Many Twitter users, on the other hand, had tons of saucy comments about Gorbachev’s Pizza Hut past.
But one person felt obligated to remind the world that Gorbachev isn’t the only world leader who shilled for Pizza Hut. Yep, Donald Trump did too!