![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The two exchange charges and defenses of Gorbachev’s record-“Because of him, we have economic confusion!” “Because of him, we have opportunity!” “Complete chaos!” “Hope!”-before an older woman settles the argument: “Because of him, we have many things … like Pizza Hut!” He’s a bystander to the commercial’s central drama, a fight over Gorbachev’s legacy between a fiery, pro-reform young man and a dour, anti-Gorbachev middle-aged man-possibly father and son. Gorbachev isn’t actually the star of the commercial. More serious authors treat the commercial as a free-floating signifier to prove whatever thesis they are peddling, as when Jacobin cites it as another data point showing that Gorbachev was a sellout or David Foster Wallace uses it to prove the vacuity of popular culture.īut the conventional stories don’t really hold up. Most of the facts dredged up in these deluges are recycled from a 1997 New York Times article. There’s an undeniable voyeuristic frisson of seeing a man who once commanded a superpower hawking pizza.Įach time it repeats, it leaves behind a new flood of clickbait- Time listing it among the “Top 10 Embarrassing Celebrity Commercials” in 2010, Mental Floss using Gorbachev’s birthday as a hook to link to it in 2012, Thrillist naming it the sixth-most bizarre celebrity endorsement of all time. The ad would have become a footnote were it not for its long second life online, where it’s rediscovered every few years. ![]()
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