THE REAL MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD
MOST INTERESTING MAN from p. 1
asked to have his picture taken with
him. And Dos Equis, once a low-profile
brand sold mostly in Texas and
California, has become the country’s
sixth-largest imported beer. The surge
is largely attributable to the James
Bond-meets-Ernest Hemingway char-
acter Mr. Goldsmith plays, who is so
revered that, as one ad says, “if he were
to pat you on your back, you would list
it on your résumé.”
As the campaign enters its sixth
year, Ad Age sat down with Mr.
Goldsmith and the Dos Equis team to
talk about their success while getting a
behind-the-scenes look at the produc-
tion of new spots that will roll out this
month. With a few new wrinkles that
include exposing The Most Interesting
Man’s “dark side,” the commercials
seek to maintain momentum for Dos
Equis, which gained 15.4% in U.S.
shipments last year, vs. 2.7% average
growth for the top 10 imports, accord-
ing to Beer Marketer’s Insights.
The breakthrough has provided a
much-needed star brand to complement Dos Equis importer Heineken
USA’s flagship Heineken lager, whose
shipments are down 20.5% since 2006,
according to Beer Marketer’s.
In the beginning, Dos Equis had no
idea it would have such a big hit on its
hands. The campaign’s first ads were
originally aired in a few select markets
in the West. And Mr. Goldsmith certainly didn’t know what he was getting
into the day he auditioned for the part
in 2006.
“Basically it was just a cattle call,” he
said. “I got into the room, and there
were hundreds of people and a big
crowd waiting outside, and everybody
looked like Juan Valdez. And I said ‘This
is crazy—they are not looking for me.’
I went in when it was my turn and all I
could think about was ‘My God, I’ve
got to move my car by 4 o’clock or I’m
going to get a massive ticket. ’ ”
What Dos Equis was looking for
was a lead actor for a campaign that
would break the beer-advertising mold.
While so many spots featured fancy
cars, hot babes or exotic locations, the
Dos Equis team discovered that “more
than anything else, [drinkers] really
wanted to be seen as interesting by
their friends,” said Senior Brand
Director Paul Smailes.
Rather than cast a young actor, Dos
Equis went with an older, worldly pro-
tagonist. The logic was that the target of
young men would not “see him as a
threat or as a reminder of accomplish-
ments they hadn’t achieved yet,” Mr.
Smailes said. He “needed to be some-
one to work toward, vs. a mirror of
themselves.”
Mr. Goldsmith is a self-described
Russian Jew from New York who’s a bit
of a hypochondriac. He had pretty
much given up on Hollywood by the
time of that tryout, turning his atten-
tion to business ventures such as log-
ging and car washes. I first met him at
the office of Dos Equis’ production
company, Radical Media, where Mr.
Goldsmith had arrived for a wardrobe
test with a gym bag and his third wife,
Barbara. He wore a green windbreaker
and an earring he’d bought at a drug-
store for $5. Unassuming at first, Mr.
Goldsmith commands the room once
he starts talking, full of same charm
and charisma as the character he plays.
He first got into acting after being
“asked to leave” New York University,
where he partied too much and had a
fling with one of his professors, he said.
His psychiatrist introduced him to a
stage director who told him to enroll in
acting school at New York’s Living
Theater. His first scene was an improvisation. “I got applause for the very first
time in my life,” he said. For a guy who
was “never successful at anything,” he
said, that was enough. He was on
Broadway in no time.
PHOTOS BY ROGER SNIDER
Back in the saddle
Convinced that he could make it in
Hollywood, he packed up his old
Volkswagen and headed West. Once
there, however, “nothing happened,”
he said. So to make a living he drove a
garbage truck filled with industrial
waste. He always had a blue dress-suit
at the ready in case he landed that elusive acting interview.
He finally got one. One of his big
breaks was a role on the popular TV
western “Gunsmoke.” But the script
(“Kyle vaults on the horse and gallops
into the night”) posed some serious
problems for a kid from the Bronx.
“Fuck me, I couldn’t ride a horse,” Mr.
Goldsmith recalled. Practicing on an
aging, lethargic one, he said, “I prompt-
ly got up on the wrong side. … The
horse threw me into the mud … and
that’s how my career began.”
But he kept climbing back in the
saddle and eventually appeared in the
series 16 times. He parlayed that work
into roles on other hit shows in the
1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, including
“Bonanza,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Knight
Rider” and “Dallas.” He was “always
the wise guy,” he said, or the one being
shot or killed. But he was maimed by
the best, as in the 1976 movie “The
Shootist,” with John Wayne firing at
his head. Mr. Goldsmith was pelted
repeatedly with so many blood capsules
that the director spurred him on with,
“Everybody who got shot in the head
by John Wayne made it big-time,” Mr.
Goldsmith recalled. Laughing about it
now, he added, “40 years later, here
comes Dos Equis.”
When Dos Equis came calling, the
beer, like Mr. Goldsmith, was not a star,
playing more of a supporting role for
Heineken USA. The Most Interesting
Man campaign was created to move
beyond conventional Mexican
imagery. The brand cast a wide net for
its lead, searching for a mature, experi-
enced actor who wasn’t too recogniza-
ble. (His wife, then only his agent, got
Mr. Goldsmith into the audition.)
“Basically it was
just a cattle call. I
got into the
room, and there
were hundreds
of people and a
big crowd
waiting outside,
and everybody
looked like Juan
Valdez. And I
said ‘This is
crazy—they are
not looking for
me.’”
