Mar 22 2009
Stay Thirsty My Friends
I have fallen in love with a new radio commercial I discovered and just found out there are television commercials. Everybody knows all about Chuck Norris and his vast collection of jokes (if you WoW, then you definitely know them) and we all laugh at them, at least once. “Superman wears Chuck Norris under-oos.” Stuff like that. Well, here’s something better.
According to Dos Equis (doo-sek-ees) the most interesting man in the world, it appears, is not Chuck Norris. It’s a rugged, beautiful man, played and voiced (in radio commercials) by Jonathan Goldsmith. The radio commercials are freaking awesome - featuring funny quotes about the most interesting man in the world, who is never given a name. Here are a few of the lines from these commercials.
Even his parrot’s advice is insightful.
If there were an interesting gland, his would be larger than most men’s entire lower intestines.
His shirts never wrinkle.
He is left-handed. And right-handed.
Even if he forgets to put postage on his mail, it gets there.
He once knew a call was a wrong number, even though the person on the other end wouldn’t admit it.
You can see his charisma from space.
His blood smells like cologne.
When he orders a salad, he gets the dressing right there on top of the salad, where it belongs…where there is no turning back.
He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels.
The announcer reads off a few of these lines with perfect timing and at the end, MIM (most interesting man) says, “I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends.” It’s that simple. And this is an idea that can transfer to commercials, print and an immersive and amazing website (staythirstymyfriends.com) where you can play games, learn how to say funny lines in different languages, complete quizzes, etc. It’s pretty fun, indeed.
The television commercials area all over the YouTubes, so you can look up those, but they aren’t nearly as good as the radio commercials in my opinion. The thing that is so innovative about this, is that it’s a hark to advertising ideas past. A long, long time ago, in a land with older advertising and lots of print ads, lots of products were creating this same thing… “icons.” People and cartoons that represented everything the company stood for and engulfed and embodied that. Like…
The Pillsbury Doughboy
Ronald McDonald
The Energizer Bunny
Betty Crocker
The Marlboro Man
The Man in the Hathaway Shirt
The Schweppes Man (Commander Whitehead)
There’s a reason these campaigns have been so successful, and it’s been a LONG time since the last successful icon, in my opinion. I think MIM is well on it’s way to joining the ranks. Have you heard these? Do you like them, hate them, spoof them? Leave comments or email me your spoof videos or links and we can all enjoy!
