Hopefully Flo will never retire.
I have to wonder, when an actor becomes the face of the brand, and in the case of Goldsmith, being part of a huge increase in sales of that brand, how well does the actor do financially? The actress who plays Flo has been getting a huge amount of work from Progressive (in fact, I can’t recall seeing the same Progressive commercial twice.) Do they get a bonus for the brand’s success? A fee for each airing? Or are they just expected to be happy to continue to get work?
I don’t know the exact figures but I’ve heard that Dean Winters has made more money playing Mayhem for the Allstate ad series than he’s made for any of his regular roles.
On the other hand, there’s Milana Vayntrub who plays Lily on the AT&T ad series. I saw an interview with her where she said she was paid a one-time fee of $800 for the first ad she did in the campaign. I’m assuming she’s gotten a raise since then.
I’ve never heard of a commercial actor getting paid based on product success. It’s possible that it has happened, but it’s not industry standard. The main way of getting paid is an upfront rate for the commercial itself, then ongoing residuals based on how often the commercial airs, in what media (network, cable, local programs, etc.), and in how many markets.
Sometimes, there is a buyout in lieu of residuals, where they give you a bigger lump sum when you shoot the ad, but you don’t get any ongoing payments based on airings. Most actors prefer residuals, but sometimes they don’t get a choice.
Either way, though, if you become the “face” of a product in a long-running national ad campaign, you earn enough to live pretty comfortably, at least as long as the campaign keeps running, and often for considerably longer.
It’s hard to come up with good ones; there’s a certain fascinating implausibility about them.
He rides a unicycle sidesaddle.
They must try hundreds of them to get a few keepers.
I haven’t seen Red from the Wendy’s commercials in quite a while. sniff
They make out like a bandit. One of the stipulations is they can’t do any other work, not just advertising but TV and movies (contracts differ, but that’s generally the rule), so they’re financially compensated for that. And every new year they get continual work their fee goes up into the stratosphere. Someone like Flo, Stephanie Courtney, who makes new ads so frequently, will be especially happy as she’s probably got a per-commercial fee on top of that.
The ones who really do well are the celebrities who get a piece of the product they hawk on infomercials. Think Suzanne Somers with thighmasters or George Foreman cooking grills.
Though, regretfully, the ads are coming to an end… The Most Interesting Man In The World can’t feel regret!
My favorite is 'His mother has a tattoo on her arm reading ‘Son’.
I didn’t read it, but one of the top trending stories in marketing on social media in recent days was a story about Wendy’s changing their ad agency. So I’m assuming it’s related.
So in six months there will be a commercial with him drinking Dos Equis with cute Martian ladies?
Ditto.
Though this one is a close second.
And billfish called it.
That’s the part that really sells the value of the ad campaign to me. I love how they didn’t try to portray him as a man who is only drinking beer, and just one beer at that. Because somebody like that wouldn’t be very interesting, would they?