Fast Paced World ("Fast Talker")

Why it works

A frantic executive, played by John Moschitta, fires through a working day without drawing breath: hiring a candidate in seconds, putting Pete in charge of Pittsburgh, closing a deal with Dick, Dave and Don, booking New York and LA on alternate days. Then a calm voice asks whether you are glad there is one company that can keep up. Ally & Gargano's spot for Federal Express turned the promise of speed into a performance rather than a claim, and it parodied self-important management chatter so precisely that the business audience laughed at itself. The director, Joe Sedelmaier, who later made Wendy's "Where's the Beef?", brought his deadpan casting and timing. It is studied as a model of dramatising a benefit through form and of comedy in business-to-business advertising. Moschitta won a Clio for the role, Ad Age ranked the Federal Express "fast talker" campaign No. 11 of the 20th century, and New York magazine named the spot the most memorable ad Madison Avenue ever sold.