Why We All Love “The Most Interesting Man In The World”

Dos Equis sales have climbed a full 26% percent amid a global recession that’s eating up the competition, and it’s all because of a gravel-throated, bearded man who can do anything–and do it with panache. The earth belongs to The Most Interesting Man in the World, and no one even seems to notice that Dos Equis tastes like the bar rag in a San Juan bowling alley. What gives?

Manliness beats dudeliness.

In a commercial universe overflowing with jocks and well-meaning dumbasses, the image of a suave, Elder Statesman Of Manhood is a refreshing and comforting port in the storm. He frees bears from traps, pilots speedboats, wears the hell out of suits, plays jai alai and fences. The guy is smooth and masculine without being macho or a bully. That, and his indiscriminate foreign origins play well into the reputation of an “exotic,” imported beer, as do his global exploits: Jailed in Guadalajara, romantically entangled with the princess in Angola, sequestered in a cave in the Serengeti.  Moreover, The Most Interesting Man In The World may beat up magicians and bench press Asian women in chairs, but the guy is still sensitive. “When it is raining, it is because he is thinking of something sad.”

Compare him to your average beer ad, let alone the multitude of “are you man enough to eat this burger” commercials out there, and you’ve got a campaign that manages to pique its target’s interest rather than shove them around and scream in their faces. Utterly refreshing, too, is The Most Interesting Man’s nonchalance toward the product. Most beer ads are updates of “gotta get that cereal” commercials from their target’s youth, with the Trix rabbit being replaced by a guy burrowing into his neighbor’s fridge to steal Miller Lite. But The Most Interesting Man could care less; he doesn’t “always drink beer” because, presumably, he has better things to do. How cool is that?

Femsa, the distributor behind Dos Equis, plans to step up a global campaign after the success here in the United States, so men the world over can aspire to stop being such colossal boners and learn how to land a marlin, like a real man.

Watch The Most Interesting Man In The World And Never Watch Another Dumb Beer Ad Again

‘Interesting Man’ Helps Femsa Endure U.S. Beer Slump [Bloomberg]