11. Jackson Was The First Westerner To Appear In an Ad on USSR Television
1984’s Pepsi commercial wasn’t famous only for severely burning its star. It also became the first Pepsi ad to broadcast in the communist USSR on purchased airtime. Only one had aired earlier, free of charge, during the Goodwill Games in 1986. Michael Jackson also became the first western star to appear in an advertisement in the Soviet Union. His lyrics were allowed to be aired in English with no Russian dubbing or Cyrillic alphabet subtitles.