Typically, commercials are just the annoying time-fillers in between our favorite shows. Just when the action is coming to a head –poof!– we cut to commercial. Then we have to wait a few minutes to find out what happens next, and sit through a string of fast food and cell phone commercials.
All those minor inconveniences are a multi-hundred-billion-dollar industry of their own though. From the ad executives to the hired actors, there’s plenty of money to be made in these short spots. Digital ad sales have slowly surpassed the TV market, but the profits are in the stratosphere for both. Ad agencies alone brought in $170 billion last year.
Once in a while, certain actors in commercials manage to make a lasting impression on us, becoming famous from these short earworms. Shocking though it might seem, these famous faces from TV commercials actually do exist outside of their specific characters – and they happen to make quite a small fortune for their commercial work.