Because of Gorbachev We Have Pizza Hut

Pan pizza is a pizza baked in a deep dish pan or sheet pan.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Russian and Soviet politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.

In 1997, former Soviet Union leader Gorbachev starred in a Pizza Hut commercial with his granddaughter Anastasia Virganskaya to raise money for the Perestroyka Archives. The ad “obviously exploited the shock value of having a former world leader appear… [and] played on the fact that Gorbachev was far more popular outside Russia than inside it”. It was filmed on a multi-million budget with a cinematic quality, including mounting cameras on the Kremlin and shutting down Red Square to get the establishing shots of the square, and dialogue entirely in Russian with English subtitles, to show Pizza Hut as a global brand compared to its American rivals.

The commercial suggested that capitalism was better than communism because it made Pizza Hut possible. In October 1998, Pizza Hut left Moscow. Gorbachev has stated to The Guardian that he lost his savings due to the 1998 Russian financial crisis. Pizza Hut suspended operations of their 50 Russian outlets in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency originated in 1891 with the George Batten Company, and in 1928, through a merger with Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BDO), the agency became Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn.