In Russia, Advertising Watches You

If you enjoyed my lovable Russkies column, and even if you didn't, you might get a charge out of the great eighties fad for drab Soviet vistas in advertising.

Probably the best remembered is this Wendy's spot featuring a Moscow fashion show:

A less successful Wendy's commercial features a Soviet Olympic team, a KGB agent, and a fine Wendy's burger:

And my favorite of the bunch, a spot for RC Cola, which plays on the actual history of Coke and Pepsi exports to the USSR. As always where Royal Crown Cola is concerned, this commercial ends tragically:

I can't find the commercial where Saveli Kramarov wants to buy a big American car with tailfins, and in fact I can find so little evidence that it ever existed that I'm beginning to doubt my own memory. That's disturbing, but an appearance by Hey Giorgy is enough to turn any frown upside down: