FEDEX has been something of an advertising bellwether. Its 1981 spot, by Ally & Gargano, topped New York magazine’s list last year of “most memorable” ads of the last four decades: it featured the fast-talking actor John Moschitta Jr. delivering alliterative lines — “Peter, you did a bang up job. I’m putting you in charge of Pittsburgh, Peter. I know it’s perfect, Peter; that’s why I picked Pittsburgh.”

The actor Fred Willard said his spoofs for FedEx seemed more like sketch comedy than infomercials.

FedEx’s spots — for the last 20 years by BBDO Worldwide, New York, part of the Omnicom Group — helped pioneer office humor in ads, and often had their premieres during the Super Bowl. So when the company announced that after 18 years it would forgo advertising during the last Super Bowl, because it could not justify the expense during the downturn, the news resonated.

Click www.nytimes.com for the whole story.