Pizza Hut

History

Changing the names of restaurants in Russia

On July 12, 2022, it became known about the renaming of Pizza Hut restaurants in Russia. They started working under the signs "Pizza H," the usual red logo changed to a white circle with a new inscription. Such a rebranding was seen in St. Petersburg. Read more here.

2020: Largest restaurant franchisee Pizza Hut files for bankruptcy

In early July 2020, NPC International, the largest American franchisee of Pizza Hut, filed for bankruptcy. The company operates 1,225 Pizza Hut pizzerias and 385 Wendy's restaurants. Read more here.

1997: Commercial with Mikhail Gorbachev

In 1997, Mikhail Gorbachev starred in an advertisement for the American restaurant chain Pizza Hut. In the video, the last president of the USSR with his granddaughter enters a pizzeria, where an ordinary Moscow family dines.

Upon recognizing Gorbachev, relatives begin to argue about his legacy: a middle-aged man rebukes the former leader for plunging the country into chaos, and a young man - perhaps his son - insists Gorbachev has given Russia freedom and prospects. As a result, the conflict of generations is resolved by an elderly woman who notes that if not for Gorbachev, the Russians would not have "Pizza Hut." At the end of the video, all restaurant visitors stand up and lift a piece of pizza "for Gorbachev."

As Foreign Policy wrote, in the 1990s, Pizza Hut expanded rapidly and wanted to emphasize its superiority to competitors in the American market - pizza chains like Little Caesars and Dominoʼs. The expansion was accompanied by a powerful advertising campaign: they did not spare money on it, BBDO, in particular, agreed to shoot with Muhammad Ali.

The entry of the restaurant chain into the Soviet market in 1990 was originally positioned as part of the "deal of the century" between the leadership of the USSR and PepsiCo, which owned Pizza Hut at that time - but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, expansion was threatened (as Paul Musgrave notes, in 1991, Lithuanian mozzarella, which was used in a Moscow restaurant on Tverskaya, overnight became the product of expensive imports).

Mikhail Gorbachev at that time was in dire need of money. After the collapse of the USSR, he was given a large pension, but taking into account hyperinflation by 1994, it was about two dollars a month. The foundation created by Gorbachev clashed with President Boris Yeltsin. After the defeat in the 1996 elections (Gorbachev gained 0.5% on them), the Fund was left alone, but there was no money to continue its work, and even the constant lecture activities of the former president of the USSR could not cover the costs of its existence.

In order for advertising to correspond to American ideas about Russia, we had to wait for snow - and build a fake restaurant on Red Square.

It is not known for certain which side initiated Gorbachev's shooting in a Pizza Hut ad - but talks began shortly after the 1996 election. The American company wanted to shoot something that none of the competitors even dreamed. Gorbachev said in an interview that, firstly, pizza brings people closer together, and secondly, he admitted that he really needed money. The amount of his fee was not published, but, according to Foreign Policy, in terms of 2019 prices, it amounted to at least a million dollars.

During the negotiations, the former president of the USSR presented several conditions. First, he should have had the right to approve the script. Secondly, he flatly refused to eat pizza in the frame. "I'm a former head of state," he said. "I can't eat pizza." As a result, the creators came to a compromise: together with Gorbachev, his granddaughter Anastasia Virganskaya starred in the advertisement - the former president treats her with pizza.

The shooting lasted two days, and the interior was filmed in a real restaurant "Pizza Hut" (it was located on Tverskaya near the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky), but for outdoor plans the sign had to be hung on a jewelry store nearby on Red Square: the creators wanted the personnel of Moscow to be as recognizable as possible. The creators also complained about the weather: it was very cold in Russia, but little snow fell - "not enough for the view of Red Square to meet the expectations of American viewers."

When the snow finally fell, Gorbachev arrived at the shooting late, and advertisers even began to fear that the project would fail. When the film crew greeted him near the Kremlin, BBDO art director Ted Shane remarked, "We're doing a grand project." To which the former president of the USSR replied: "Yes, I happened in these places to participate in grandiose projects."

Pizza Hut ads with Gorbachev aren't just expensive ads; this is a small movie made more according to the laws of cinema - ranging from an atypical decision for the American market to preserve dialogues in Russian and accompany them with subtitles, and ending with a soundtrack recorded by the orchestra live. In addition, the journalist's interlocutors note the selection of characters, each of which reflects a very recognizable type of Soviet and post-Soviet person.

Despite the seeming simplicity, the journalist notes that the creators managed to very well - perhaps better than anyone - grasp the essence of post-perestroika Russia and explain both the difference in relations to the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev and the debate about this legacy. Despite the emphasized stereotypical image of places and people, the only thing that looks implausible in the video is the toast "For Gorbachev!," In which the voices of all residents of the country merge in the final of the video. In this sense, this video is also about the fact that in his homeland Mikhail Gorbachev will probably never be able to find such unanimous recognition as in the West.

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