Busy Philipps Takes Full Advantage of Social Media—and Has No Shame About It

The actress revealed that she made more money from social-media ads last year than she does from acting.

By Hilary Weaver. Photos: Getty Images.

To survey Busy Philipps’s Instagram account is to find multiple photos documenting her Oscar-worthy friendship with Michelle Williams, her two daughters, Cricket and Birdie, and even a short video of her trying out a new catch phrase (?). Every so often, though, Philipps will post a sponsored ad or two—she has an ongoing partnership with Michael’s, for example. And as Philipps revealed in an Instagram video Thursday, she actually made most of her money last year with these social-media ads—and there’s nothing wrong with them.

In her video, Philipps addressed a Thursday Cosmopolitan.com story praising her for her Instagram stories. The story, written by Kate Spencer mentions that Philipps recommends products on her Instagram without going for that “#sponcon” hype that many celebrities add.

To that end, Philipps said she understands why celebrities want to throw that “ad” or “spon” hashtag on their stories.

“Listen, guys, I’m not above it,” Philipps said. “I just only choose things that I genuinely like and, like, would want to partner with, like, for instance, my Michaels partnership, which, you know, is my favorite thing of all time. And I’m doing one next week, I think, that feels like me.” She added the moneybags emoji with the phrase, “We all gotta make money.”

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Philipps got honest, too, about the life of an actor—not every job can pay its cast $1 million per episode like The Big Bang Theory.

“I made more of my money doing that kind of stuff, like the partnerships with brands," Philipps admitted. After all, the former Cougar Town star said, most TV acting is sponsored content, too: “As a television actor, when we work in TV, what we're doing is making a product so that networks can sell ad space."

After nearly 20 years as an actor, Philipps knows a thing or two about how to capitalize on a moment. At the Oscars this year, which she attended as Williams’s date, hers was among the best reaction faces to the Moonlight-La La Land upset. That photo is now her profile picture on Twitter—maybe not #sponcon, but a priceless ad for Busy Philipps, the celebrity BFF of our dreams.

This story originally appeared on Vanity Fair.

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