Featuring: Brad Pitt.
Game: Super Bowl XXXIX.
Celebrity Paycheck: $4 million.
Total Price Tag: $12 million.
When regular everyman Brad Pitt heads to his fridge and finds it clear of beer, the ensuring beer run is one to remember. Directed by none other than Pitt’s “Fight Club” collaborator David Fincher, this ad has a unique visual style and memorable details.
While the ad only ran once, Pitt garnered a hefty paycheck, up to five million if the rumors are to be believed. And despite the single showing, it’s landed itself in the pantheon of legendary Super Bowl commercials.
Noxzema: “Cream Your Face” (1973)
Featuring: Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett.
Game: Super Bowl VII.
Celebrity Paycheck: Twenty thousand dollars.
Total Price Tag: One hundred thousand dollars.
Featuring a star quarterback and a famous actress, the Noxzema ad was one of the first to get people to sit up and take notice during the Super Bowl. This super bowl was the first game to be exempted from the media blackout that had become part of the NFL.
Fawcett rubs shaving cream on Namath's face alongside the slogan “Let Noxzema cream your face,” which we're sure they're still proud of. “Broadway Joe” Namath was apparently teased relentlessly for the ad.
Old Milwaukee beer (2012)
Featuring: Will Ferrell.
Game: Super Bowl XLVI.
Celebrity Paycheck: Not a single cent.
Total Price Tag: $3.5 million.
Will Ferrell wouldn't accept a dime from Old Milwaukee, saying that he likes to star in fun, crazy ads as a hobby – his net worth is hundreds of millions, so it's not like he's strapped for cash.
True to Ferrell's brand of weird and funny (that's what people say, anyway), this ad has Ferrell shilling for one of his preferred drinks. "Deadspin" described the ads as being pretty small in scope, since a lot of locals markets run cheaper spots that smaller businesses can afford.
Visa: “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon” (2002)
Featuring: Kevin Bacon.
Game: Super Bowl XXXVI.
Celebrity Paycheck: $500,000.
Total Price Tag: $1.9 million.
Kevin Bacon has been in lots and lots of films, which gave rise to the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” in which you start with any actor or actress, and, via co-stars, tracks how long it takes to get to Bacon.
Visa turned this idea into a Super Bowl ad featuring the actor himself, who plays an obsessed fan of himself. Apparently Kevin Bacon is everywhere you want to be, which some people might not be too thrilled about.
Bud Light: “The Bud Light Party” (2016)
Featuring: Seth Rogan and Amy Schumer.
Game: Super Bowl LI.
Celebrity Paycheck: $4 million.
Total Price Tag: $5 million.
For this memorable Super Bowl ad, Bud Light grabbed two people that have been called funny in the past. Rogan and Schumer joined up to forward a “Bud Light Party,” but the ad worked about as well as you expect.
Bud Light made sure everybody knew that the two actors were paid the same, and it got them exactly nothing. In fact, sales tanked after the ad's release, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who accidentally watched an Amy Schumer comedy special.