Mullane Alley

This campaign bothers me. Well let me be more clear. The campaign itself doesn’t bother me, as I think the placement, breadth and execution of the creative is extremely well done and it seems to almost entrench your everyday life. Whether it be via print, digital, radio or television, “The most interesting man” seems to know how to get around, which I guess is how he got involved in all the crazy adventures that his ads claim he has been in. My issue here is with the creative and how hopelessly unoriginal and lame it is.

If I could sum up this campaign in one word I could do so easily, Conan go ahead and pull the lever, Chuck Norris. It’s almost as if one of the creatives at Euro RSCG, the agency responsible for the campaign, really really really likes all those Chuck Norris jokes that have been going around and decided he’d pitch a campaign around that same idea, albeit slight tweaked. Add a few more years to everyones favorite Texas Ranger, a Spanish accent for flavor and whallah! check me out now, I’ve got an awesome campaign idea.

I just read this article (http://adage.com/article?article_id=137963) which informed me that this lame duck won a Titanium Lion at this years Cannes festival. I must of missed this because I would of regurgitated my lunch upon the news hitting my ears. Now normally I’m overly critical of campaigns that are otherwise good efforts just because I feel that they weren’t wrung out enough during conceptualization. However in this case, I have friends that would normally never comment on an ad campaign bring this campaign up to me in wonderment of how something so “stupid” could ever make the air.

The campaign seems to be a success at the cooler though, as Dos Equis sales rose 17% so far this year. This might just be a shot in the dark but I’m guessing that if you spent as much money as Dos Equis has on this campaign but instead of placing an old guy with bad pitch lines everywhere, you just shouted “Dos Equis” during the entire spot, you might sell even more cerveza. Dos Equis distributors are happy though, “We hear people saying the lines in bars all the time,” said one distributor. I’m guessing it’s by drunken frat boys right before the girl they were talking laughs in their face.