The Most Expensive Commercials Ever Made

Television commercials are designed to make money, but with the cost of some of these budget-shattering advertisements, it would be amazing if the company could ever break even again. Since NBC aired the first television commercial in the world in 1941, there’s been a quiet competition going on to see which company can create the most expensive commercial ever. Of course, plenty of them go on to be commercially successful, making fortunes for their companies, but some end up being massive money pits. Regardless of their credentials, we’re going to take a look at some of the most expensive television commercials in the world.

Alexa Loses Her Voice (2018)

The Super Bowl is well known for having advertisements so brilliant that people sometimes tune in just to watch them, ignoring the sport beforehand! One of the best Superbowl commercials of all time was the 2018 advertisement for the Amazon Echo. It cost just shy of $15 million, which is around $17.7 million in today’s money. The advert features Alexa (Amazon’s famous virtual assistant) losing her voice, so a desperate scramble is made to find a replacement for it. Along the way, the company employs the help of a star-studded roster of voices, including Gordon Ramsay, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Rebel Wilson, Cardi B, and even Amazon’s own Jeff Bezos. It was a clever advertisement that certainly got people talking, in fact, it was the most-watched commercial on YouTube that year, raking in 50 million views. Amazon certainly haven’t cut their advertising budget since this famous commercial either, they’re regulars on the most expensive Super Bowl advertisements list.

Coca-Cola Hilltop (1971)

Whilst there are certainly commercials that have had bigger budgets than the Coca-Cola Hilltop ad, this is one of the ones that people remember the most fondly. This iconic advert cost $250,000 back in 1971, which might not seem like a lot now, but scaled for inflation, that’s around $1.8 million. At the time, it was the world’s most expensive television ad, but the fact that it has aged so well shows it was a worthwhile investment. The advertisement shows a huge group of people of all diverse backgrounds and cultures gathered together to enjoy a bottle of Coke together. The jingle was so popular that it made it to the top 10 in the Billboard charts, something a whole lot more of today’s adverts should aspire to!

Chanel No.5 The Film (2004)

The most expensive advertisement ever made is entitled No.5 The Film and cost $33 million when it was made in 2004, which is equivalent to around $52 million today. The advertisement took the form of a very short film, lasting 180 seconds. It was shot by the celebrated Baz Luhrmann and starred Nicole Kidman alongside Rodrigo Santoro. Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s late head designer, oversaw the costume department and even made a very short cameo in the finished piece. The film tells the story of a famous actress who runs away with an unknown, but devilishly handsome, man. The two fall in love on their adventure, and of course, the actress wears her Chanel No.5. It’s a beautiful piece of advertising made only more perfect by the stunning Clair de Lune soundtrack, performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Honda Cog (2003)

Sometimes the best things are handmade, even when it comes to advertisements and the Honda ‘Cog’ commercial couldn’t be better proof of this. The car company decided that for their main 2003 commercial, they were going to create a chain reaction using different car parts. The advert lasted an unusually long two minutes and not a single part of it was computer generated. It was shot in one continuous shot, with no breaks, meaning it was a labour of love to get it exactly right. In the end, it took an eye-watering 606 takes to film correctly. The cost was $6.2 million, approximately $10 million adjusted for inflation; we hope that most of it was paid to the endlessly patient cameraman.

Aviva Names (2008)

This advert took a clever approach to rebranding when it decided that the British insurance company Norwich Union needed to change its name to Aviva. The company sought out famous people who had changed their names in order to make themselves a commercial success. They reached out to Bruce Willis, Ringo Starr, Elle Macpherson, and Alice Cooper and asked them to talk about how their name changes had helped to propel them to success. It was an interesting watch, though not nearly as visually spectacular as the other advertisements on this list. Thanks to the star-studded cast, this commercial’s total spends came in at $13.4 million, around $21.5 million adjusted for inflation today. For a relatively small company, which was a whole lot of money, but the brand has stood the test of time and is one of the UK’s main insurance providers today.