KICKING IT UP A CROTCH

2]
BURT REYNOLDS [FOR FEDEX/KINKO'S]
As a future member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame in the League of Themselves wing (for both dramatic and commercial portrayals of himself), Burt Reynolds is an old hand at the schill game. He's pitched in the League for such products as Kodak Max film, White Diamond perfume, Maaco's auto body repair (a classic!), and most recently for T-Mobile.

And if there's any celeb who's had a healthy sense of his own importance (and a lack of respect in regards to it), it's "Mr. Burt". He knows how to send up his own image without coming across as a washed-up star hoping to rekindle his fame by poking fun at himself. Not many can claim to do that.

That's why the FedEx/Kinko's blipvert about the rudiments of a successful Super Bowl ad campaign works so well. In anyone else's hands, the mishmosh of ingredients (talking, dancing animal, cute kid, classic hit song, pretty girls, and the always dependable groin kick) would have been mishegas.

But Burt pulls it off because you know he's in on the joke and so far above it that he could get a nose-bleed. (Not good for selling a product, by the way; always stick with the groin kick. Or with flammable horse farts.)

So Burt Reynolds gets high marks from me for this commercial and let me tell you, that was no easy thing. Only recently I had a very bad experience with FedEx which ended up costing me 160 dollars on a package that never even reached its destination! 68 bucks of that money went towards me paying a ransom to FedEx just to get the package back out of their incompetent hands.

(The Post Office had no trouble sending the package, by the way.)

And despite all of that, I still enjoyed their commercial. And that was all due to the work of Burt Reynolds.

Would never use that company ever again though, but still........