One ticket to the Super Bowl: $2,000. Thirty seconds of advertising during the Super Bowl: $2.7 million. Five seconds’ worth of Madonna in a Super Bowl ad: A heck of a lot more than that. Sources tell E! Online that the Material Girl was paid $10 million to appear in a new advertising campaign for Sunsilk hair-care products, including a commercial that will premiere during the the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants (most of whom do not make $10 million in an entire season).
In the 30-second spot, old stock footage of Madonna, Shakira and Marilyn Monroe is woven together in a Warholian, pop art-inspired montage touting Sunsilk’s new “Life Can’t Wait” global campaign.
“Make your hair happen,” the ad urges, to the closing strains of Madonna’s “Ray of Light.”
Shakira did herself a nice–although not as nice–turn, as well, collecting $2.5 million from Unilever, which opted to use its only Super Bowl buy to spotlight the Sunsilk brand. (For those who don’t want to wait for the two-minute warning, the commercial can be previewed at lifecantwait.com.)
Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, had no comment on her client’s reported payday.
“I have not seen the commercial nor do I have any information on the financial part of the deal,” she told E! News.
Even if she did the work gratis, however, Madonna would still be the richest gal in the business. The Confessions on a Dance Floor artist banked $72 million between June 2006 and June 2007, according to Forbes.com’s new list of the top 20 “Cash Queens of Music.”
In addition to her slice of her $260 million-grossing Confessions tour, Madonna had proceeds from album sales, merchandizing and license fees, clothing lines, fragrance deals and other endorsements to fall back on.
A whole Super Bowl ad behind was Barbra Streisand, who came in at number two with $60 million.
But although Madonna didn’t have to do much to have her moment in the Sunsilk, she’s been plenty busy recording her 11th studio album, the working title of which is Give It to Me, which is due out in April.
Justin Timberlake, who’s also making a Super Bowl showing in a Pepsi ad, and Timbaland were reportedly on their way to London last week to shoot the video for the album’s first single, “4 Minutes to Save the World,” which the duo wrote and produced.
