Real Name: Pete Gardner
Salary Deal : $10,000
Pete Gardner’s been in a ton of commercials, but one of his most memorable spots has been as the hirsute historian of beards to the similarly-bearded NBA star, James Harden. In a commercial for NBA 2K15, Gardner appears to give Harder expert advice to keep at the top of his beard game.
Gardner, who unfortunately does not have a legendary beard in real life, has been in commercials for Doritos (“Crash the Super Bowl”), Juicy Fruit, Castrol, Taco Bell, USPS, and Hanes. His pedigree of working alongside athletes began with Hanes when he worked with Michael Jordan. His Castrol commercial is famous for its “Think with your dipstick” line. Gardner got $10,000 for this single NBA 2K15 ad.
Captain Morgan's Chief Party Officer
Real Name: Adam Devine
Salary Deal: $3 million
Get it? Because a Chief Petty Officer is a naval rank and – oh, you get it. While Mr. Devine might not be playing the Captain himself, the Chief Party Officer is a big role to fill, and at a hull-busting $3 million salary, we hope Adam kept things shipshape. There's nothing like a celebrity endorsement to get people to notice.
Adam Devine is recognizable from roles such as Pitch Perfect, Workaholics, Game Over, Man!, and plenty more. His first commercial for the captain was House Party: Sea Creature – Devine pretended to be the famous one-leg-up captain on a house's front lawn.
The Gas Station Pepsi Girl
Real Name: Cindy Crawford
Salary Deal: $5 million
Even if you've been living under a rock, you'll recognize the name, Cindy Crawford. She is one of the world's most famous supermodels and is almost as well known for this famous Pepsi spot. Her iconic – and breathtakingly thin – white tank top and supermodel-messy hair got her $5 million for the simple ad, which meant more than $150,000 for every second.
Crawford recreated the ad during the 2018 Super Bowl with her son, Presley Gerber, twenty-six years after the original. Is it possible a taste for Pepsi is a genetic thing? We might be looking at the nature versus nurture debate.
The Doritos Kid
Real Name: Tobey Maguire
Salary Deal: $5,000
Years before Maguire donned the mask and swung through the buildings of New York as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, he was asking everyone “Who's Bob?” Bob seemed to really like Doritos, as the people at the bowling alley repeatedly told him, but Bob might not even exist.
Maguire ended up hating Doritos because of how many he ended up eating thanks to the commercials, but the commercials were not only a big career boost for the eighth-grader but also put $5,000 in his account. If you're interested in knowing more about this commercial, don't bother. Insiders could only call it “baffling.” It's exactly what you might expect from a nineties commercial for Doritos.
The “Can You Hear Me Now?” Guy
Real Name: Paul Marcarelli
Salary Deal: $9 million
It was one of the most famous phrases a commercial had during the years from 2001 to 2011, and Paul Marcarelli raked in the big bucks with a total of $9 million. Thanks to their universal coverage, Verizon was able to build five simple words into a huge industry.
While Marcarelli starred in the commercials for a long time, he now speaks for Verizon competitor Sprint, using the new tagline “Can You Hear That?” It might not have the same ring, but Marcarelli is still doing good work for Sprint, starting in 2016.