Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, was featured in a 1998 television advertisement for Pizza Hut.

In the commercial, a family inside the Pizza Hut restaurant discusses Gorbachev's political legacy.

The commercial starts with an aerial view of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Manezhnaya Square from the viewpoint of the Four Seasons Hotel Moscow after a recent snowfall.

Then Gorbachev is walking through the snow with an umbrella, together with his granddaughter Anastasia Virganskaya while Saint Basil's Cathedral is visible in the background.

They enter the Pizza Hut restaurant at Red Square and take a seat at a table in the corner.

[9] The arrangement flopped after the Soviet Union collapsed, which killed Pizza Hut's supply chain.

O'Neill Bistrian suggested that a member of Gorbachev's family would eat the pizza slice, which ended up being his granddaughter.

[2] The exact amount that Gorbachev received was never disclosed, although it was argued that it was one of the largest talent fees in history.

The Pizza Hut shown on Red Square was actually a jewelry store which was changed for the filming.

For taking the shots of Red Square and churches, the crew hefted the film cameras on the Kremlin itself.

He played a key role in shaping the ending of the commercial, by adding reverberation and layering chants over each other.

[2] The commercial was broadcast in the United States during the 1998 Rose Bowl football game on January 1, but not in Russia where Gorbachev was widely criticized in the media for taking part in the advertisement.

[2] As stated by Tom Derbyshire to Newshour on the BBC World Service, it was understood that Gorbachev was to be used as a controversial figure, one that would use the former Soviet leaders mixed reputation to spark debate, only then to be united by the American pizza, which to Tom, was a good thing.

It highlights the differing ideologies between generations, with economic frustrations being at the forefront, Gorbachev is seen as the representative figure, as seen in the commercial.

[18] In 2012, Nadia Kaneva and Elza Ibroscheva wrote that Gorbachev's appearance in the Pizza Hut ad—as well as his appearance in a 2007 Louis Vuitton print ad for which he was photographed by Annie Leibovitz—symbolized "the passing of communism and the triumph of the new, capitalist, and consumerist order" with Gorbachev's transformation "into a commercial spokesman for powerful Western brands" and the "co-optation of [his] iconic status for marketing purposes" serving as an ironic symbol of "his irrelevance as a political figure in the post-communist context.

[11] In 2000, however, Gorbachev was featured in an advertisement made in Vienna by Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann for the ÖBB, the Austrian federal railways.

[23] In 2007, Gorbachev was featured in a photograph advertisement taken by Annie Leibovitz for Louis Vuitton in a car next to remaining parts of the Berlin Wall.