Celebrities are paid a shocking amount for 30-second Super Bowl ads
CTV
Receiving an eight-figure paycheck for a few days of work is rare, even in Hollywood, but it’s not unheard of.
After Ben Affleck appeared as a Dunkin’ drive-thru worker in a Super Bowl commercial last year, the breakfast chain’s sales exploded.
“They sold more donuts the next day than any other day in their history,” an individual close to the Dunkin’ Super Bowl campaign told CNN. “That says a lot.”
Getting into business with the Boston-bred Affleck — an A-list fan of his hometown donut shop who is the quintessential spokesperson for the brand — catapulted Dunkin’ into the pop-culture zeitgeist.
“We ran it once and got 7 billion media impressions, and it kind of kickstarted the year,” Scott Murphy, the president of Dunkin’, recently told Entrepreneur about Affleck’s 2023 Super Bowl ad, which was the company’s first commercial to ever run during the Big Game. “The brand is just in the conversation,” the executive added. “It just really feels in the fabric of things now.”
The success of Affleck’s Dunkin’ partnership is undeniable. But it didn’t come cheap.
Affleck was paid close to US$10 million dollars for last year’s Dunkin’ Super Bowl commercial, three sources with knowledge of the partnership told CNN.
But it wasn’t a typical talent deal. Aside from his on-camera participation, Affleck helped conceive the creative concept of the ad, and his production company that he shares with Matt Damon, Artists Equity, produced and directed the spot. Part of the deal to get Affleck on board was Dunkin’ making a sizable donation to his nonprofit, the Eastern Congo Initiative, ET reported last year and a source confirms to CNN.
