FedEx Super Bowl Ads Latest Victim Of Economy (VIDEO)

Perennial Super Bowl advertiser Federal Express has pulled out of the upcoming event for the first time in 12 years, citing the economy. In an entry on the company's blog, Director of Advertising Steve Pacheco explained the company's rationale:

As a country, we are in unprecedented economic waters. And as a responsible employer of more than 290,000 employees and contractors worldwide, there is a time to justify such an ad spend and a time to step back.

As FedEx employees, we, like millions of people at other companies, are being asked to do more with less. Our most vital asset is the thousands of FedEx team members who truly enable the world to work, absolutely, positively, every day. In the ultimate medium when where the message is king, being in the game simply sends the wrong message both to employees and other FedEx constituents. A Super Bowl ad buy is not where we should put dollars at this time although, in the past, the value of doing so for FedEx has been indisputable.

FedEx, which uses ad agency BBDO New York, has been a Super Bowl advertiser since 1989 with classic spots, which Pacheco runs down in his blog:

To name a few, giant carrier pigeons wreaked havoc and tossed cars in our CGI city, the Stanley Cup wound up in Bolivia, we learned that the cherished Castaway package contained a survival kit, blank color bars surprised all when we learned the network did not use FedEx one year and the EMMY award-winning "Stick," featuring the FedEx cave men, showed us that FedEx rocked the prehistoric age.

Pacheco said FedEx looks forward to advertising in the Super Bowl again soon, but until that time comes, check out some of their ads throughout the years below:

Carrier Pigeons, 2008 (Super Bowl XLII):

Moon Office, 2007 (Super Bowl XLI):

Stick/Caveman, 2006 (Super Bowl XL):

Ten Things, 2005 (Super Bowl XXXIX):

Alien, 2004 (Super Bowl XXXVIII):

Marooned, 2003 (Super Bowl XXXVII):

The Wizard of Oz, 2001 (Super Bowl XXXIV):

Comments

[heavydrop]

Good, now I don't have to watch the Super Bowl.

[zest]

Funny how through press releases a corporation is getting more airplay about not advertising on television than if they did run their ads. Sounds like a brilliant way to maximize exposure and minimize expenditure by being the firstist with the leastist. Good business practice.

[cloudmaker]

A wise decision by FedEx. First because they have chosen to spend their money
more wisely and set a standard for thrift at this time. But even wiser because they will
be conspicuous by their absence and probably more talked about that if they had
bought some time.

[fignozzle]

i think we get their decidedly cool point.

[DRaymond]

Superbowl commercials will look bad for any company cutting benefits and employees so I suspect that Fedex will not be the only ones.

I wonder how many others will join them, and who will backfill.

[UnionProud06]

Sad to hear they're cutting 35,000 jobs and stopping pay into pension plans...but I'm glad in a way. FedEx is ONE of the most anti-Union companies and could careless about worker's rights and their "independent contractor" drivers. This is good news for UPS.

[omega101]

I was a "Independent contractor" driver for Fed Ex, UnionProud06 is absolutely correct in discription of Fed Ex, they are a terrible company to work for and could care less about the employees, most of us made it about 18 months at most, before running away from that company and it really set-in how bad we were being screwed.
Check-out the law suits against Fed Ex from former contractors and the Goverment(taxes), but if you also research how much money they contribute to both Republicans and Democrats (especially Republicans) then you'll see how they get favorable treatment usually from the Gov. concerning labor law.

[Archivist1000]

UnionProud and OMEGA ... and anyone else who makes this error... my Xmas gift to you, so that you don't sound uneducated ...

It's COULDN"T CARE LESS ............ when you say that 'you could care less' then you are saying that you DO care, somewhat, if there is still room to care less!

Merry Xmas!

[bavb63]

not exactly

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm

[Beans22]

Instead of the $46,575 daily salary CEO Fred Smith will only be making $27,397. Now That's a paycut. Good Grief.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Where can we send help for him...

[corleone9876]

Great superbowl commercials !! Especially Wizard of Oz Fed Ex commercial ... from 2001 (see above)

[FZliveson]

It is a pity because most years I only watch the Superbowl for the COMMERCIALS and not the football.
I have been a great football fan in the past (Season tickets to the Niners during Montana/Young heyday)
but as compared to the commercials, many years the game sucks and the half-time entertainment is designed for drunks, punks and skunks!

[shockmagog]

The Prince and Stones halftimes were memorable to me. I couldn't tell you which football teams played, however.

[janinei]

Last year was my God, Tom Petty!!

[BurgessPenguin]

Do they or Pepsi or Bud NEED to advertise during the Super Bowl? They are name brands with built-in customer loyalty -- why throw huge sums of money at ads that realistically, buy them nothing?

[Paw1]

Road trips to the game, where senior client staff are wined and dined for a full weekend and escorted to plush mid-field seats to watch it all. Why else?

[FZliveson]

Hey...if FedEx was good enough for Tom Hanks and Wilson, then.....

No, seriously...if advertisers see that they don't get value from extravagant ads on the Superbowl, it may permeate down deep into sports and reduce some of the gawdawful salaries that jerks get paid to do stuff they would do for nothing on a Saturday afternoon in the park.

This economic downturn COULD be a wedge that splits society away from our material obsession and into a state of mind where people really do count.

Yes, it is about PR, but what they are doing is saving money that filters down to the bottom line, the place where all good businesses MUST make the decisions of business. Very responsible. Very refreshing.

[Samalabear]

Yes, I'm trying to figure out how the Yanks and Mets are going to fill all those brand-new expanded luxury boxes for the elite next year and those higher prices for us ordinary butts in the seats. If they pull out the ads how will the Yanks pay the ludicrous $161 million contract for Sabithia? It should be very interesting. Could it be that baseball will become everyman's game again?

An interesting story with interesting ramifications. Bud is not owned by Americans anymore, so it will be even more interesting to see what their foreign handlers do.

[Mikeeee]

Maybe this will finally send the message that the rates charged for superbowl ads are ridiculous and have been for too many years.

[bulfinch]

Perhaps I'm being cynical, but there may be big FEDEX layoffs coming. A Super Bowl ad would be used against them as an example of misplaced values should layoffs occur.

[Ryan77]

Unless I'm mistaken, FedEx has never laidoff a single body in the 35+ years it's been operating, and there have been other substantial economic downturns.

[catinca]

Who the heck are you??? They just cut managment salaries 5% & quit matching 401k while business is increasing since DHL pulled out of the US domestic market.

[UnionProud06]

FedEx is laying of 35,000 and stopping pay into pension plans AND under investigation by the IRS...

http://www.fedexdriverslawsuit.com/

[catinca]

Yes this is all about PR. They won't even let their employees off a few hours early on Christmas Eve.

[Ryan77]

Ignorant comment, seeing as how this would be the busiest time of year, making commitments on packages people have sent their loved ones in time for christmas.

[catinca]

The business is more than Christmas Eve deliveries. It is not the busiest time of year for their heavy freight business. Maybe your loved ones should have shipped earlier.

[LeonBNJ]

I am quite sure this is more about public and employee relations than anything else. I am quite sure they will be advertising on the AFC/NFC Championship and other NFL games as well as the College Bowl game they sponsor. This just saves them 2 Million dollars to be used elsewhere in their marketing and perhaps in a better way. I wonder how many other advertisers will pull their ads for the SB?