Advertising Just Got Less Interesting

“The Most Interesting Man In The World” campaign for Dos Equis is my favorite on air and has been since its introduction. But the client/agency recently announced they are taking The Most Interesting Man out back and burying him.

Sending him to Mars, actually, so we won’t be regaled with his tales of infinite interestingness.

I don’t always cry in my beer, but when I do, I prefer to cry into Dos Equis.

The brand says the campaign will continue with a younger “Most Interesting Man In The World”–– good luck with that. It’s not like finding a comic to occupy Col. Sander’s white suit. We’re talking a legend here!

Are they killing the elder Most Interesting Man because the actor Jonathan Goldsmith is 77? Is this pure ageism? Does the brand think millennials can’t connect with an elder statesman?

Someone tell Bernie Sanders–– the kids are faking feeling the Bern.

Does anyone recall Bartles and Jaymes? Hal Riney created the top wine cooler brand with a couple of old farts on a porch and sold millions of gallons of the stuff for Gallo.

Still, The Most Interesting Man In The World is getting canned and will be replaced by a newer model. It’s a sad day in adland.

While he pimped the brand, TMIMITW put up some impressive stats: Dos Equis sales almost tripled, and case sales were up 10% last year, plus the dude became a pop icon, internet meme, boss daddy god.

And for these successes, he got two in the skull.

The beautiful thing about the campaign was this: it could have been for just about any brand. You can debate this point, but the reason the effort succeeded was that it knew it was b.s. from the beginning. The campaign wasn’t rooted in the product (he could have worked for many products), but he became the embodiment of what the brand became. It was brilliant writing, casting and execution, played straight with the ultimate humble, truthful and disarming almost-but-not-quite-call-to-action, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”

No talk of barley, hops, artesian craftsmen or bespoke brew. Just a man we loved because he was better than us and always will be.

I don’t think for a minute he’ll be growing potatoes on Mars. He’s dead, but likeThe Swedish Bikini Team, he will live on in pop culture and our memories.

Howard Gossage said, “People don’t read ads, they read what interests them. And sometimes that happens to be an ad.” The same is true of commercials–– we’ll watch what’s interesting. And The Most Interesting Man In The World was pretty damned interesting. He will be missed.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

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Patrick Scullin is an empathetic adman and founder of Ames Scullin O'Haire Advertising (ASO), and has created campaigns helping Georgia Aquarium, The Coca-Cola Co., UPS, Golf Pride Golf Grips, Mitsubishi Electric, Delhaize America, Georgia Natural Gas, Mellow Mushroom and more.

He has two blogs:  Empathetic Adman (marketing pontification) and The Lint Screen (satire,  smartassery humor, pop culture ramblings, and advice for people getting hip replacements).