We can have pressed the nuclear button and less than ten years later be playing the sandwich man for pizzas, American ones at that. If the tributes to Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday August 30 at the age of 91, were initially due to his policy of detente at the head of the USSR, he also stood out in the 1990s for another role : the guest star in a Pizza Hut ad.
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The 60-second spot shows him in a Moscow restaurant owned by the American brand on Red Square. The former Soviet leader, seated with his granddaughter, is recognized by customers at a nearby table, who yell at each other in Russian:
– “Because of him, we have the right to economic confusion and political instability,” complains a middle-aged man, who arouses hostilities among customers.
– “Thanks to him we have the opportunity and the freedom!” replied a young man.
– “Thanks to him we have many things … like Pizza Hut”, concludes an elderly lady.
Unstoppable. The spot ends with customers raising their cheese-soaked pizzas and shouting “Hats off, Gorbachev!” as the former Soviet leader also serves his granddaughter a slice of pizza.
But how did the man who led the downfall of the USSR end up playing his own role in an ad for an American brand? The cameo was far from written. When Pizza Hut’s advertising agency, IMG, wracks its brains over the relaunch of the brand whose latest pizza isn’t generating enthusiasm, it decides to refresh the company’s face. In this year 1997, two names appear: Mikhail Gorbachev or Mohamed Ali, the ex-outcast boxer who has become a consensus figure.
“Gorby” is the top choice, but IMG embarks on months-long negotiations to win the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, says Foreign Policy magazine. The former Russian leader, unpopular in his country, is playing for time to up the ante but also because those close to him, particularly his wife Raïssa, fear the place will permanently damage his international reputation. In exchange for a check for the still undisclosed amount, estimated at between $160,000 and $1 million, according to sources cited by the American press (far more than what Pamela Anderson, the brand’s newest muse at the time), received, Gorbachev gives in to the advances of big business.
Under certain conditions: being in control of the script and not eating pizza in front of the camera. To the chagrin of Scott Helbing, then advertising chief of Pizza Hut, in an interview with Foreign Policy: “We always wanted the hero of the spot to eat a piece of it.” “As a former head of state, I won’t do that,” Gorbachev replied. end of discussion.
Even if it means poaching a world star, you can just as well play the blockbuster to the end. Red Square is closed to long shots for a whole day, as is the scene where Gorbachev, wearing a cap covering his famous birthmark, crosses the esplanade under an umbrella, accompanied by his granddaughter.
While it took him months to accept the pizza industry giant’s offer, “Gorby” drags on until the day of filming. “It was real torture… Falling to that level!” he confided years later to Russian magazine Snob. As a sign of his ill will, he makes sure to be late for the first few takes, Foreign Policy tells. Director Ted Shaine snaps at him: “Look, you’re in a big production!” Response to a more inspired “Gorby”: “I’ve been on far too many big productions in this place…”
In the United States, the commercial aired on January 1, 1998 at halftime in the Rose Bowl, a very large varsity American football competition. She immediately enters the legend of the most embarrassing clips in advertising history. Subsequently, the Soviet leader may have justified himself on numerous occasions with the merits of this sequence, we can feel him pulling the oars. In the press release accompanying the commercial’s broadcast, Gorbachev mentions a personal project: “I’m in the process of building a library on perestroika [sa politique de libéralisation de l’économie soviétique, initiée en 1985].”
With the New York Times in 1997 he tried a different justification: “[La pizza], it is an important part of life. It’s not just about consumption, it’s about conviviality, to bring people together.” In the same interview, he admits that he would have considered this proposal “inadmissible” a few years earlier, having kicked him out of the building he gave to the Gorbachev Foundation assigned, and it is not the conference fees that will be enough to construct the building of his dreams. In the Guardian, Gorbachev admits in 1998: “I needed money… And the economic crisis practically brought me to the straw.” I needed money, I had taken out a loan to build my foundation building. The workers started walking.
Ironically, the spot never even aired in Russia due to the unpopularity of the former leader, who emerged from thin air in the 1996 presidential election with 0.5% of the vote adapted pizza with mackerel, sardines and salmon – fizzled. In 1998, the chain withdrew from Russia because of the economic crisis, which also destroyed Gorbachev’s woolen stocking.
He assured the Russian magazine Snob in 2010 that this spot brought him a wealth of letters of support. “Boris Yeltsin expected that from me Discredit yourself with this ad. And letters came from everywhere: ‘Bravo Gorbachev!’ The reaction of the people was very positive. Everyone saw that I didn’t steal the money.” This is his version of the story. In a CNN voice pop when the spot was released, a Muscovite taunted his former leader with not-very-kind words: “And after that he’ll do an ad for Tampax too?”