"The Stanley Cup was supposed to be here three days ago!" a man frantically barks into a cell phone in the bowels of Detroit's Joe Louis Arena in this Super Bowl XXXIII ad out of BBDO. At the last minute, the package arrives and our protagonist races out onto the ice in front of the Detroit Red Wings and a crowd of 20,000 people. The package is opened right there and the hockey players look ... puzzled. Cue a shot of a misty mountainside.
FedEx and BBDO would return to the theme of shipping failure in 2006's prehistoric special-effects extravaganza "Stick." But their immediate encore for the 2000 game took viewers, and a FedEx truck, to the world of L. Frank Baum ("Delivery for Oz").
Michael Patti served as copywriter; prolific Super Bowl ad director Joe Pytka, who also lensed "Delivery for Oz," helmed the spot. The ad took fourth place in the USA Today Ad Meter ranking of 1999 Super Bowl commercials.
BRAND: FedEx
YEAR: 1999
AGENCY: BBDO
SUPERBOWL: XXXIII
QUARTER AIRED: Q3