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.
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.
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.
Reebok: “Office Linebacker” (2003)
Featuring: Terry Tate.
Game: Super Bowl XXXVII.
Celebrity Paycheck: $1 million.
Total Price Tag: $4.2 million.
While Terry Tate wasn't a real linebacker – he was played by actor Lester Speight – these ads are still some of the most memorable in Super Bowl history. Featuring Tate bringing football justice to office injustice, millions of people still watch these ads even now.
The ads were based on a 2000 short film by Peter Chiarella (who would go on to write "Crazy Rich Asians"), who also served as one of the executive producers for the ads. The first ad became an instant classic when it premiered during the big game in 2003.
Quicken Loans Rocket Mortgage: “Get Comfortable” (2020)
Featuring: Jason Momoa.
Game: Super Bowl LIV.
Celebrity Paycheck: Unknown.
Total Price Tag: Unknown.
Jason Momoa thrills with his intense looks, superman physique, and long locks, but he has some secrets, and we got to know them all thanks to this Rocket Mortgage ad, which had Momoa removing his muscular bodysuit, taking off his wig, and settling down for some music.
The ad's teasers only had a brief shot of Momoa seeming to remove his shirt, which got plenty of people jazzed up to see the full ad, only for it to give us a one-eighty during the ad itself.