Real Name: Orlando Jones
Salary Deal: $500,000
Jones earned a pretty penny for his role as lemon-lime soft drink spokesperson – $500,000, from 1999 to 2002. He’s an entertainment biz veteran, co-producing The Sinbad Show back in 1993, and appearing in shows and movies such as In Harm’s Way, Sour Grapes, Office Space, Woo, and Liberty Heights. He got his first big break in 1987 as a screenwriter for A Different World, an NBC comedy.
7 Up chose him for his comedic personality and writing skills. He’s recently been in Starz’s American Gods, The Book of Love movie, and episodes of Room 104 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
The Safeguard Singer
Real Name: John Travolta
Salary Deal : $70,000
Here's another name you're certainly familiar with. Long before he rose to international fame with movies like "Grease" or "Saturday Night Fever", Travolta appeared in a Safeguard Bath Soap commercial. The commercial aired in the 1970s and featured Travolta and his teammates singing in the shower after a sweaty basketball game.
It's the first time the world got to see Travolta's musical talent, and just a few years later, he would appear in Grease, and his career would speed up. However, he earned plenty of money from his soap ad, at a salary of $70,000. They were lucky – a few years later and they might have had to add a zero to the end.
Dunkin Donuts' Fred the Baker
Real Name: Michael Vale
Salary Deal: $1 million
How well-liked and loved was Fred the Baker when he retired from his commercials in 1997? Dunkin Donuts gave away six million free donuts to celebrate his send-off, and the TV Bureau of Advertising named his original commercial one of the best of the decade in the eighties. His slogan was “Time to make the donuts,” since the commercial featured him getting up at the crack of dawn to make the delicious treats DD is known for.
Actor Michael Vale portrayed this down-to-earth and hard-working everyday man for a cool million dollars, and his character was so popular Boston gave him his own parade.
The 90's Pepsi Girl
Real Name : Hallie Kate Eisenberg
Salary Deal: $1 million
If Hallie's name seems familiar, that's because she's the sister of the famous actor, Jesse Eisenberg. Hallie played Little Amanda Martin AKA the Pepsi Girl, who did little more than enjoy the sweet taste of the blue can, in a set of commercials airing during the nineties. She went on to non-commercial projects, such as the movie Paulie.
Hallie continued acting until 2010, appearing in Beautiful, with Minnie Driver, and starring in The Miracle Worker, a TV movie remake. Actress fact: she was named after Hallie O'Fallon from the movie All I Want for Christmas. Hallie raked in a cool million for her soda spokesmanship.
Flo, The Progressive Insurance Woman
Real Name: Stephanie Courtney
Salary Deal: $8 million
With a grating, draining, plastic, and fake upbeat attitude offset by an outdated hairdo and garish red lipstick, Stephanie Courtney has been annoying the people of the world as ham alien Flo from Progressive for years. She's been in one hundred different commercials so far, though who could have been able to tell? They're all the exact same thing. She even has an Australian counterpart to spread the disease further: Kitty, played by actress Holly Austin.
She has received eight million dollars in salary, though Progressive charges so much for car insurance that's probably nothing. Courtney has also appeared in Mad Men, Cavemen, Men of a Certain Age, and The Goldbergs.