Pepsi catches a ride on the wave of liberalization in the Soviet Union in this Super Bowl spot by BBDO New York, shot in Moscow with a Russian cast.

In many ways, it's a striking spot for Super Bowl Sunday. The dialogue is Russian with English subtitles, not historically considered the best way to catch rowdy viewers' attention. The soundtrack is an energetic song by Soviet band Pogo. But by positioning Pepsi in constrast with the drab Soviet era, it identifies the soft drink as the future. And it works.

The minute-long ad does considerably collapse the time between the introduction of Pepsi to the Soviet Union, which it describes as "not very long ago" but was actually 1974, and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or openness.

One year after Pepsi's "Glasnost," Sprint ran a Super Bowl spot incorporating Chechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution ("A New World").

Director/director of photography: Leslie Dektor. Production company: Dektor Film Crew. Executive producer: Faith Dektor. Producer: Phyllis Koenig. First assistant director: Frank Glenn. Wardrobe stylist: Roberta Woodrow: Camera assistant: Justin Chefe.

BBDO creative director: Al Merrin. Executive producer: Tony Frère. 

BRAND: Pepsi

YEAR: 1989

AGENCY: BBDO

SUPERBOWL: XXIII