John Moschitta, Jr.
| John Moschitta, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 6, 1954 New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Spokesperson, singer |
| Years active | 1979–present |
John Moschitta, Jr., also known as "Motormouth" John Moschitta (born August 6, 1954, in New York City), is an American spokesperson and singer best known for his rapid speech delivery. He appeared in over 100 commercials as "The Micro Machines Man," as well as in a 1981 ad for FedEx, and provided the voice for Blurr in The Transformers television shows and film.
Moschitta had been credited in The Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Fastest Talker, with the ability to articulate 586 words per minute. (His record was broken in 1990 by Steve Woodmore who spoke 637 wpm and subsequently by Sean Shannon who spoke 655 wpm on August 30, 1995.) Raised with five sisters, Moschitta said that he needed to talk fast as a form of self defense "just to get a word in edgewise."
In 1981, Moschitta appeared on the ABC TV series That's Incredible!. This appearance led to many other television offers, such as The Tonight Show and the Merv Griffin Show. Also, after seeing the show, Patrick Kelly and Michael Tesch, employees of the Ally & Gargano ad agency, hired Moschitta to appear in a FedEx commercial (when the package-delivery company was still known by its original name, Federal Express). In the ad, "Fast Paced World", directed by Joe Sedelmaier, Moschitta played a fast-talking executive named Jim Spleen. The commercial garnered six Clio awards, including Best Performance–Male award for Moschitta and earned him the nickname "Motormouth". Turn-of-the-century polls named it the Most Effective Campaign in the History of Advertising and named Moschitta the Most Effective Spokesperson. The 40th-anniversary issue of New York Magazine (October 6, 2008) listed it as number one in "The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold".Advertising Age ranked the ad number 11 among its "Top 100 Campaigns" in March 1999.
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