Socrates once said, “Fame is the perfume of heroic deads.” Well, in modern marketing, fame’s “perfume” sells products. Last August, three academics from Carnegie Mellon University published a paper that calculated the worth of celebrity spokespeople. They determined that Tiger Woods’s celebrity sponsorship from 2000 to 2010 led to $103 million of sales at Nike, as well as an approximate 2.5% price premium. That is, until Tiger went off the marital rails.

Financial institutions, too, have historically turned to celebrities to pitch financial products, although not as prominently as, say, sporting goods manufacturers. Yet, the celebrity pitchman is a mainstay in banking. Here we offer up today’s Top 10 banking spokespeople, including the single most legendary banking spokesperson in the history of modern bank advertising (or at least in our opinion). Enjoy.

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