Old Men in Liquor Ads

Seth Stevenson at Slate has a nice review of the Dos Equis ads that are finally getting national attention. I've highlighted what I think is the key to these ads below, namely that the spokesperson capitalizes on his dimensionality by admitting he doesn't always drink beer.

What I find more interesting is that older men seem to be making a comeback in the branding department. Stevenson references another review he did on the Crown Royal campaign which features young guys learning from old guys.

There's no TV campaign yet, but Canadian Club has also been touting the virtues of experience with a print campaign using the tagline "Damn Right Your Dad Drank It."

It seems that being mature has it's merits when trying to convince young consumers (and make no mistake, these ads are all targeted at the twenty-something crowd) to move away from the comfortable, cheap tastes of Bud Light and well whiskey.

It's nice to see that Dad still has some respect in the world today.

clipped from www.slate.com Perhaps the most interesting thing about the most interesting man, in marketing terms, is his ambivalence toward the advertised product. "I don't always drink beer," he says. Whaa? "But when I do," he adds, almost offhandedly, "I prefer Dos Equis." Double whaa? Generally, a brand icon will be an all-out cheerleader. Imagine Tony the Tiger admitting that he doesn't always eat cereal for breakfast, but that when he does, he tends to eat Frosted Flakes, like, most of the time. Doesn't have quite the same impact as "They're Grrrrrrreat!"