Dos Equis Keeps It 'Interesante,' Just Without the Man Himself, in First Ads by Droga5

Watching the new campaign for Dos Equis, viewers may notice one very conspicuous thing missing ... well, two things if you count his famous beard. The beer brand's first major campaign since moving its account from Havas Worldwide to Droga5 last year contains no trace of The Most Interesting Man in the World, or the two actors who played him—who served as its iconic face for more than a decade. But Dos Equis still wants to keep things "interesante" with the help of a few beer-fueled tall tales. [kickout id="1"] "He's not dead; we're intentionally not killing him," Dos Equis brand director Quinn Kilbury said of the Most Interesting Man, "but we need to focus on the brand and getting its benefits out to the world, versus a focus on The Man." That said, the campaign has been successful beyond the company's wildest dreams. What began as a regional campaign running only in the Southwest in 2006 grew into a global phenomenon, inspiring spoofs and leading to what Kilbury said was 11 million cases sold in Texas alone. "We ended up selling The Man too often," Kilbury said in explaining the pivot away from the character made famous by Jonathan Goldsmith and later played by actor Augustin Legrand. "It's not that the latest version of The Man wasn't good ... but it wasn't good enough." The other ads in the campaign that debuted today make clear that the brand's strategy is to come up with variations on the theme of exaggeration in the interest of keeping an audience interested, much like The Man himself once did. [kickout id="2"] [kickout id="3"] [kickout id="4"] "As we look at what drinkers and young people today value, the meaning of 'interesting' has changed," said Droga5 creative director Ryan Raab. "It used to be about status, wealth, power and accomplishments. Now it's more outward facing: being engaged, being interesting ... and just telling a great story. The upside of that is that anyone can be interesting." Or, as Kilbury put it: "Only one Man can be interesting, but anyone can be interesante." In keeping with the theme of exaggeration, the campaign also includes a series of "fake news" sites with believable names like Marketing Worldly, News Times Gazette and Best New Ads that make outlandish claims like the non-fact that the campaign bore "a staggering cost of nearly $200 million." According to another story, it occurred on the same set as the (obviously staged) moon landing. These pages, of course, redirect to the Dos Equis website. Kilbury said the brand will be working on new themes tied to Cinco de Mayo and that Droga5 will produce more content for social and digital in the weeks and months to come. "It was a pretty crazy 50-year-long shoot," said Raab, chuckling. "We did lots of neat things like shooting in 8K, which is more definition than the human eye can see. We thought it was definitely worth it; it was all in service of telling a really great story." CREDITS Agency: Droga5 Client: Dos Equis Campaign: "Keep It Interesante" Creative Chairman: David Droga Executive Creative Director: Scott Bell Creative Director: Ryan Raab Copywriter: Ryan Snyder Art Director: Katie Willis Jr. Copywriter: Jenny Yoon Jr. Art Director: Maria Kouninski Group Design Director: Devin Croda Designer: Erin Wilson Creative Technology Director: Brian Moore Creative Technologist: Chloe Karayiannis Jr. Creative Technologist: Danielle Clemons Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale Co-Director of Film Production: Jesse Brihn Executive Producer, Film: Rebecca Wilmer Associate Producers, Film: Phillip Cheng & Carlos Valdivia Music Supervisor: Mike Ladman Director of Business Affairs: Jocelyn Howard Sr. Business Affairs Manager: Whitney Vose Business talent manager: Dino Spanakis Traffic Manager: Wendy Kaplan Co-Director of Interactive Production: Tasha Cronin Senior Producer, Interactive: Andrew Puzzuoli Director of Print Services: Rob Lugo Producer, Print: Ariel Wakasa-Gonzalez Group Strategy Director: Ramon Jimenez Strategy Director: Nick Maschmeyer Strategist: Alex Cohen Communications Strategy: Director Yan Wang Communications Strategist: Clark Cofer Sr. Data Strategist: Joshua Gordon Head of Account Management: Dan Gonda Group Account Director: Edward Rogers Account Directors: Celeste Pulman & Bradley Allen Account Supervisor: Taylor Berry Associate Account Manager: Kenzie Grubbs Project Manager: Hillary Jordan Legal: Sarah Fox & Zachary Werner Cient Senior Brand Manager: Quinn Kilbury Brand Director: Karla Flores Brand Manager: Hannah Dray Brand Manager: Lindsay Certilman Junior Brand Manager: David Smith Production Company: MJZ Director: Tom Kuntz DOP: Bradford Young Sr. Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins Producer: Emily Skinner Editorial: Whitehouse Post Editor: Alaster Jordan Assistant Editor: Alejandro Villagran Assistant Editor: Sam Ommen Executive Producer: Caitlin Grady Producer: Nick Crane Post Production: Smoke and Mirrors Executive Producer: Steve Intrabartola Producer: Krystle Timm CG Director: Michael Donovan Lead Flame Artist: Dino Tsaousis Color: Co3 Executive Producer: Ashley McKim Senior Producer: Katie Andrews Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld Sound: Gramercy Park Studios Audio Engineer: Chris Afzal Audio Engineer: Collin Blendell Vicky Ferraro: Head of Post Production Laura Goerhrke: Producer