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.
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.
Heineken: “The Run” (2005)
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.
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.
Pepsi: “Joy of Pepsi” (2002)
Featuring: Britney Spears.
Game: Super Bowl XXXVI.
Celebrity Paycheck: $1 million.
Total Price Tag: $5.7 million.
Britney was the It Girl of an entire decade, and she could hardly do anything without every tabloid source in the world breathlessly reporting on it. She banked a number of big ads, including for Pepsi, and the ad she did for Super Bowl XXXVI.
It's a simple jingle with plenty of flashing lights and some good old fashioned pop dancing. Spears has even gone on record that this ad and the others she did with Pepsi are some of the work she's most proud of.