A company in FedEx and BBDO New York's "Carrier Pigeons" uses birds to solve shipping problems -- to disastrous effect. The concept worked for viewers, though, earning second place on USA Today's annual Ad Meter ranking of Super Bowl ads' entertainment value that year.

"Carrier Pigeons" was the finale in 18 consecutive years of Super Bowl advertising for FedEx, which sat out the game starting in 2009, initially because of the recession. “And as a responsible employer of more than 290,000 employees and contractors worldwide,” it wrote in a blog post then, “there is a time to justify such an ad spend and a time to step back.”

See FedEx and BBDO's excellent 2006 Super Bowl ad "Stick" for a different animal shipping approach, with about as much success.

Director: Tom Kuntz, whose extensive Super Bowl portfolio also includes Toyota's "It's Reinvented," Volkswagen's "Get Happy," Oreo's "Whisper Fight," MasterCard's "MacGyver" and CarMax.com's "Kid in a Candy Store." Production company: MJZ.

BBDO executive creative director: Eric Silver. Associate creative directors: Gerard Caputo, Reuben Hower. Copywriter: Reuben Hower. Art director: Gerard Caputo. Executive producer: Elise Greiche. Account director: Erika Jackson.

VFX: Framestore. Supervisors: Murray Butler, David Hulin. Animal trainer: Mark Jackson.

Editorial: Mackenzie Cutler. Editor: Gavin Cutler. 

BRAND: FedEx

YEAR: 2008

AGENCY: BBDO

SUPERBOWL: XLII

QUARTER AIRED: Q1