Lots of companies have really huge ad budgets. But after you've accumulated $100 million here and $100 million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money: $1 billion to spend, all on ads.
Only 36 companies in the U.S., according to Advertising Age, spend more than $1 billion a year on ads.
Apple was the most recent company to cross the magic $1,000 million mark. The others run the gamut, from consumer goods companies to telecommunications entities.
Nos. 36 - 31: Apple joins the club.
36. Apple:$1 billion Apple's ad budget rose only marginally from a base of $467 million in 2007 until 2010. That year, Apple began a series of new product launches in both the iPhone and iPad lines that has continued unabated, most recently with iPhone 5and iPad Mini, both coming in the last few weeks. Apple reached the $1 billion mark in its fiscal 2011 year, which ended recently.
35. General Mills: $1.002 billion Most of General Mills' ad budget is spent on television ads ($835 million). It is tied with Pfizer on our list for spending the lowest percentage of its ad budget, just 0.2 percent, on billboards.
34. Google: $1.005 billion Google increased its ad spending by 60 percent since last year, giving it the biggest increase of any company on our list.
33. Microsoft Corp: $1.033 billion Microsoft spent $667 million more than Apple on advertising and $740 million more than Dell.
32. Sony Corp: $1.041 billion This Tokyo company spends the majority of its ad budget on television, with $564 million going towards the platform.
31. Capital One Financial Corp: $1.043 billion Capital One shelled out $280 million on television ads, part of which went to pay Jimmy Fallon and Alec Baldwin to appear in commercials.
Nos. 30 - 26: How Jennifer Lopez and Lauren Conrad drive adspend.
30. Viacom: $1.06 billion Viacom is the media conglomerate that houses MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, TV Land, and Paramount Pictures. Paramount's highest-grossing movie of 2011 was "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."
29. Kohl's Corp: $1.12 billion This clothing retailer exclusively sells Jennifer Lopez's, Daisy Fuentes,' and Lauren Conrad's clothing lines — and is thus contractually obliged to promote them.
28. Honda Motor Co: $1.14 billion Honda ran a Super Bowl ad for its CR-V featuring Matthew Broderick, which cost the company around $3.5 million.
27. J.C. Penney: $1.16 billion This Texas-based retailer spent 11.9 percent less on advertising than last year.
26. News Corp: $1.27 billion This media company spent $81.7 million on radio ads alone, making it one of the highest radio advertisers on our list.
Nos. 25 - 21: Burgers and beer.
25. Unilever: $1.3 billion Unilever's brands include Ben & Jerry's, Dove, Lipton, and TRESemmé. Dove's more recent ad campaigns have focused on portraying realistic-looking women, not just model-types.
24. McDonald's Corp: $1.37 billion Behind Time Warner, McDonald's spends more on outdoor ads (billboards) than any other company on our list, shelling out $71.6 million.
23. Berkshire Hathaway: $1.39 billion Warren Buffet's company, which owns Geico, spent $680 million on television ads. Geico also has a strategy of running more than one different TV campaign at once (i.e. the gecko and the bodybuilder campaigns).
22. Sprint Nextel Corp: $1.4 billion This telecommunications company is the only one on our list that didn't alter their ad budget from the previous year.
21. Anheuser-Busch InBev: $1.42 billion This beverage company spent $3 million on newspaper ads, the lowest amount of any company on our list.
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