No Longer Interesting

I came across this standee for Dos Equis at an airport bar yesterday and had to comment.

In 2007 Euro RSCG’s ads featuring “The Most Interesting Man in the World” became a sensation, and for good reason – they were smart, funny, and most importantly, authentic feeling. This is the man that most boys would love to had grown up to be – confident, worldly, mysterious, and probably a little dangerous. And, he was barely even hawking the product in the ads, as he would say, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do I prefer Dos Equis.” He’s almost saying, “Real men drink hard liquor, but a cold beer is nice once in a while.”

I came across a standee for Dos Equis yesterday at JFK airport. It shows our man, badly groomed, dressed in a third-rate Vegas dinner jacket “welcoming you” into the bar. What happened to make him no longer interesting? My guess is that when the ads first ran (broadcast & print) the level of interest drove the company to put the actor/model out there to maintain visibility. I’ve quickly looked this fellow up on-line, his name is Jonathan Goldsmith, and as far as I can see he’s a decent, modest man, with some philanthropic interests, but he’s no where near the most interesting man in the world. I don’t even think that he’d make the top 25.

This is a situation of people not knowing what they have and how to deal with it. The major appeal of this man was his mystery; as soon as he opened his mouth (unscripted) his magic was gone. It seems to me that they should had some kind of gentleman’s agreement with the model that he was to avoid any exposure outside of the ad agency’s direction.

No more Santa Claus, again.

Top Left Image: The Original Dos Equis ad (shot by Michael Lewis)

Top Right Image: The airport standee