And Another Hobgoblin of Success Falls Victim to FedEx Efficiency

I heard John Krasinski mention something about Steve Carell and Federal Express while on the red carpet at the SAG awards and couldn't for the life of me remember what he was talking about. A quick youtube search found me a dozen spots, of which I distinctly remembered one. It left me wondering, how did I forget this pretty robust campaign?

Apparently the campaign, co-starring Joe Narciso, ran back in 2001 (thank you angelfire), when Carell's most impressive credits were The Dana Carvey Show and a psychotic Greek chef named Yorgo Galfanikos in a series called Over the Top, which starred Tim Curry (IMDB). The campaign was done by BBDO New York, who was still FedEx's agency of choice only a couple years ago. They must be doing something right. Aside from an amusing creative, they also know how to cast. Sure, they found the Carell diamond in the rough, but the following spot features Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet as a food-poisoned office worker. At this point in time Stonestreet already had a few sitcom appearances and a role in Almost Famous to his name.



And this one brings you The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi, who'd appeared most notably in Law & Order and Die Hard with a Vengeance prior to this campaign.

Having seen it first-hand many times, I can tell you versatile actors really make talent-driven spots shine. Interestingly enough, neither of these two spots were the one I remembered. It was this spot titled "Hogan." Maybe this campaign wasn't running as much in the Mid-Atlantic. Or maybe it just wasn't running on my networks of choice at the time: Comedy Central, ESPN, Cartoon Network and Sci-Fi Channel. What?

Chime in, did this campaign pass anyone else by or did FedEx simply not advertise during Aqua Teen Hunger Force?

--George C. Convery, Copywriter