History

As you may know, Gorbachev did a cameo in a now-infamous Pizza Hut commercial in 1998, seven years after he left office.

At the time Pizza Hut came to Russia, it was owned by PepsiCo, and had been part of the company's expansion into the USSR/Russia. PepsiCo was in the Russian market before it was fully liberalized, which required it to work closely with the US and Soviet governments to access the Russian market. (For those curious about how US corporations managed to trade with the USSR, I wrote about it in detail - spoiler, it involves barter, and briefly made Pepsi the 7th largest navy in the world).

We know that Gorbachev was paid for his cameo. The New York Times at the time stated around $1M. Others speculate he was paid one of the largest talent fees of all time.

I'm wondering: was this paid appearance the first example of the US exporting its revolving door treatment of government officials to another country?

A Primer on the US Revolving Door

Normally, the way the Revolving Door phenomenon in the US works is that prominent public officials can expect that they will have lucrative private sector opportunities waiting for them when they leave office. Assuming, of course, they don't burn bridges with the private sector while in office. Many scholars will argue that the revolving door incentivizes public officials to adopt a pro-business posture towards the industries they regulate, without actually bribing them (which would be illegal).

The revolving door incentive, it's argued, shapes public officials' behavior while in office, so that they're lined up to get a great position after they leave office.

The Curious Case of Gorbachev's Pizza Hut Ad

What's unique about Gorbachev's Pizza Hut ad is that it involves a US company paying a foreign former official, in a country where there was no prior precedent while the official was in office. This is because private enterprise in the USSR was illegal, so there was no private sector to take in prominent government officials after they left public office.

Gorbachev pioneered the private market which allowed Pizza Hut to enter Russia in the first place. Ultimately, Pizza Hut's launch in Russia failed because of terrible supply chain and hyperinflation problems. And because Gorbachev was afraid of the impact on his reputation, the ad never ran in Russia itself.