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What a Pizza Hut ad says about Gorbachev - and Russia
BBC ^ | Ben Tobias

Posted on 09/02/2022 7:16:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway

A man and a child walk through an almost empty Red Square in Moscow, umbrella in hand, snow on the ground. It looks extremely cold - a good day to be inside eating lunch with your family.

As dramatic music plays, the advert cuts to close-up shots of the pair - a troubled-looking man in a black overcoat and cap, and his smiling granddaughter.

Within seconds they reach their destination: a Pizza Hut restaurant located directly in Red Square - the central plaza where so much of Soviet and Russian history is reflected.

But why, 24 years on, is this advert being shared as an era-defining artefact?

Because the man in the black overcoat - the man, in effect, selling American pizza - is Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: gorby
Wasn't Trump in a Pizza Hut commercial?
1 posted on 09/02/2022 7:16:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkR-RwV-xAY


2 posted on 09/02/2022 7:18:33 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: nascarnation

Impeach!


3 posted on 09/02/2022 7:42:22 PM PDT by Do_Tar (I wish I was kidding.)
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To: nickcarraway

I liked the Gorbachev Pizza Hut ad. I heard that it aired in almost all countries except Russia.


4 posted on 09/02/2022 7:53:15 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: nickcarraway
BBC Narrator: "[Gorbachev] The man famous for ending the cold war..."

The man famous for overseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union after Reagan ended the cold war, they mean. They just cannot give the right guy credit. Gorbachev was desperately trying the keep the Soviet Union going with glasnost and perestroika, not end it or the cold war. And why? Because Reagan's strategy to push the Soviets to the economic breaking point had worked perfectly.

5 posted on 09/02/2022 8:13:31 PM PDT by pepsi_junkie ("We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. FBI is tending in that direction." - Harry Truman)
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To: pepsi_junkie
BBC Narrator: "[Gorbachev] The man famous for ending the cold war..."

Yeah, by the same token, Hitler is the one who ended WWII (by putting a bullet through his skull).

Regards,

6 posted on 09/03/2022 12:12:58 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: pepsi_junkie

I will give Gorbachev credit for one thing: He didn’t order a crackdown like the previous Soviet hardliners would have.

Yes, he first tried to save the USSR. It was the country that he grew up in. He could have easily pulled a North Korea and started repressing those who wanted more freedom. Instead he tried to save the Soviet Union because the planned economy didn’t work. However, once the people got a taste of freedom it started to snowball and get away from him.

The other reason the Soviet Union finally fell is because even the military was tired of the repression and didn’t join the coup against Gorbachev. After the failed coup Russia saw the writing on the wall and just gave up.

I always found it hilarious that Russian communism was defeated not by military invasion or nuclear bombs, but by going broke.


7 posted on 09/03/2022 1:15:13 AM PDT by sloanrb
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To: sloanrb

It was an unworkable economic model. A poor solution to the needs of mankind. Very much like the idiots trying to force “wokeness” on us.


8 posted on 09/03/2022 6:14:23 AM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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To: pepsi_junkie

The Soviet Union was crushed mainly by three enormous economic burdens on Russia: The race to the moon, cold war weapons development, and the Chernobyl cleanup.


9 posted on 09/03/2022 7:17:58 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: nickcarraway

He was probably in a lot of things. It’s called Freedom and Opportunity to act to your own will.

The BBC can take their staid, stiff upper lips and search everywhere in Russia for people who hate Gorbachev but it won’t stop their country from being inundated with third world Muslims and refoogees of all ilk, nor will it help them gas up their cars, cool their homes the rest of this summer or heat their homes this winter. Let them denigrate all they want.


10 posted on 09/03/2022 7:23:35 AM PDT by Gaffer (Infidel, and proud of it!)
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To: sloanrb

For any fault you can tag on him, he DID allow the dissolution of the USSR to happen.


11 posted on 09/03/2022 7:25:01 AM PDT by Gaffer (Infidel, and proud of it!)
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