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.
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.
Amazon: “Alexa Loses Her Voice” (2018)
Featuring: Anthony Hopkins, Cardi B, and Gordon
Ramsay. Game: Super Bowl LII.
Celebrity Paycheck: $2 million.
Total Price Tag: $25 million.
In a world where Amazon's electronic assistant Alexa loses her voice, the company scrambled to replace her with famous chef Gordon Ramsay, famous actor Anthony Hopkins, and rapstress Cardi B.
The ad garnered acclaim from critics and audiences, was nominated for an Emmy, and won three “Clio” awards. The Clio's are apparently about honoring innovation and creativity in advertising, which is why you've never heard of them.
Pepsi: “New Look” (1992)
Featuring: Cindy Crawford.
Game: Super Bowl XXVI.
Celebrity Paycheck: $500,000.
Total Price Tag: $5 million.
Pepsi has plenty of history with celebrities in their ads, but one, in particular, is sure to stick in your mind. When legendary Supermodel Cindy Crawford cracked open a can of Pepsi, it not only got tons of people to sit up and notice, but it debuted the can's new style.
Crawford became a household name thanks to this ad, though she was well on her way already. Crawford reprised the ad with her son, Presley, in 2018. She had a different outfit, but even without her white tank top, this model still sizzles.