Scarlett Johansson starred in the most expensive Super Bowl commercial ever made
Topics: Amazon, Scarlett Johansson, Super Bowl, Money, US News
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
Topics: Amazon, Scarlett Johansson, Super Bowl, Money, US News
Scarlett Johansson was cast in the most expensive advertisement of all time for the Super Bowl, and the cost will blow you away.
Even though she just got knocked off the top spot for the highest grossing actress in the world, ScarJo still makes bank when she’s hired to do anything on the silver screen.
When it comes to the Super Bowl commercials, they are costly enough as buying a slot is considered to be prime real estate for advertisers.
Just last year, 127.7 million people tuned into the Super Bowl event, per AP, so you can only imagine the revenue companies can hope to receive from so many people watching their product on screen. That’s why millions of dollars can be spent on a single ad.
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Which brings me to Amazon Alexa's ‘Mind Reader’ commercial, which stars the Marvel actress.
Having aired at the 2022 event, it apparently cost around $26 million to run during the game.
In the ad, Johansson and husband, Colin Jost, are sat on the couch as an Alexa device makes it known that it can read their minds by progressively making bolder and clearer hints.
It starts off with tiny little things, until it spills the beans on what the couple think of each other and things they’d rather keep to themselves, until it drives a wedge between the two.
According to Ad Age, the cost of a 30-second national Super Bowl LX spot has reached $8 million to secure, which is a lot of money for such a short amount of time.
However, Ro CEO Zachariah Reitano, revealed to Inc that the true cost is somewhere between $16 and $29 million due to other cost factors.
For just 30-seconds, he estimates a company would spend $7 to $10 million on the slot alone, and that doesn’t cover the $1 to $4 million production costs.
It also doesn’t cover the $1 to $5 million to secure actors either.
So, really, the minimum to hold that slot could cost $9 million, or a whopping $19 million - which is still cheaper than Johansson’s stint.
According to Statista, a Super Bowl 30-second ad would have cost a lot cheaper in 2002 and 2004, with it estimating a cost of $2.2 million.
From there, the price slowly climbs every year until it reaches its $8 million price tag this year.
However, some might be looking to use AI instead, to spend less on production costs, said Kenny Gold, managing director and head of social, content and influencer for Deloitte Digital.
“I believe we could possibly see our first truly AI-orchestrated, integrated 360 activation,” he explained to the Hollywood Reporter. “From concept testing and narrative optimization, to media sequencing, creator amplification, social remixing, and post-game commerce, AI will act as the connective tissue across TV, social, retail, and experiential,” Gold added. “And as recent AI-forward campaigns have shown, this won’t be risk-free: some brands will lean into overt AI use in their creative and accept potential backlash, while others will deploy AI more subtly behind the scenes to capture the upside without becoming the story.”